VitalAccurateThinking

BP could have prevented 2005 fire, panel says

This is nothing but piling on BP's Texas City refinery. A mistake was made with a material of construction that caused the fire. Two elbows were switched which is an amazingly simple mistake to make. Of course, the Houston Chronicle is short on research about why hydrogen requires special alloys instead of ordinary carbon steel. I guess that is my role.

Hydrogen attacks normal carbon steel in a process called embrittlement. This is a phenomenon well known in the industry since at least the 1940's. However, one cannot easily tell the difference between regular carbon steel and alloys designed to prevent embrittlement. Those alloys are CR-Mo steels and other non-ferrous alloys.

You could say Jim VAT has special and personal knowledge of hydrogen embrittlement in pipelines. I can say nothing more than that. ;-)

posted by Jim VAT @ 8:07 PM