2016 AIChE Spring Meeting and 12th Global Congress on Process Safety

(164f) Propylene Pipeline Pump Fire Incident

An incident occurred which led to a pump fire on the olefins plant Propylene Pipeline Pump.  The olefins plant was down at the time of the incident due to a power outage the week prior. The minimum flow system had been lined up to a storage bullet in order to circulate propylene and the pump was started from an idle state 3 hours prior.  There were no injuries, or environmental impacts as a result of the incident, however there was significant damage to the pump, the spare pump, both motors, and collateral damage to nearby equipment. This paper describes the investigation findings determined by the basic steps of the Cause Mapping method.