Safety in Solvent Extraction plant

1. Hazards & Evaluation of Safety
Measures Regarding Fire &
Explosion in Solvent Extraction Plant
Guided by-
Prof. N. K. Jain
Dept. of Fire Tech & Safety Engg.
IES IPS Academy
Presented by-
Suhel khan 0808FT091053
Neelabh gupta 0808FT091024
Mayank jain 0808FT091020
Vikram singh 0808FT091060
Praveen patidar 0808FT091032
Vishnupratap singh 0808FT091061
Aashish barkhane 0808FT091009
B.E.Final year 8th sem
Dept. of Fire Tech & Safety Engg.
IES IPS Academy

2. CONTENT
Introduction
 Literature review
 System domain
I. Process in SEP
II. Hazards at SEP
 Problem domain
 Safety measures at SEP
 Fire fighting and safety facilities
 Guidance and learning's
 Solution domain
 Expected outcomes
 Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
 Solvent extraction is the most efficient and widely used method of oil recovery
from oil bearing materials like vegetable seed & fruits. It is basically
advantageous for processing of low oil content materials such as: soybean, rice
bran etc.
 It is a method of extracting essential oils in which chemical solvents dissolve
plant resins and produce absolutes.
 Most edible oils and fats are soluble in liquid hydrocarbons, and hexane is the
most commonly used hydrocarbon fraction for solvent extraction.
 The solvent used in this process is not expended, but is used over and over
again by the process of recycling and a large volume of the solvent always
remains in various stages of the closed plant cycle.

4. LITRATURE REVIEW
 SOLVENT EXTRACTION EQUIPMENT EVALUATION STUDY
By; L. M. Browne &R. G. Geiger (Jan 1977) They gave the review of the available literature on the types of liquid- liquid
extraction contactors used to perform radiochemical separations. They also included the comparisons between the types
of contactors. The summarization of each and approximately 130 papers reviewed contains a description of all. The
equipment tested, the chemical system used to test it, and the results of twined.
 SOLVENT EXTRACTION EQUIPMENT EVALUATION STUDY
By; BATTELLE Pacific Northwest Laboratories Richland, Washington (Jan 1977)
The Workshop Proceedings summarizes a workshop on the title subject held in mid-1976. The participants had
considerable experience in the use of solvent extraction contactors in reprocessing plants. The purpose of the workshop
was to bring together these people in order to collect, evaluate and document any information that would be helpful in
the selection of solvent extraction contactors for nuclear fuels reprocessing plants.
The Summary is a compendium of the information presented in the Literature Review and the Workshop Proceedings.
It was written to present the salient points without going into as much detail. The Summary contains a listing of the
references used in the Literature Review so the reader can either go directly to the citation for further information.
 SAFETY IN SOLVENT EXTRACTION PLANTS
By; John E. Heilman M.TECH Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society JUNE 1976 .
The history of the National Fire Protection Association, Solvent Extraction Committee, is discussed with particular
emphasis on the impact of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1971. A review of the important features
standardized in NFPA No. 36, “Solvent Extraction Plants,” is discussed, with particular emphasis on their relevance to
construction of new plants and expansion of existing plants.

5. SYSTEM DOMAIN
Ruchi soya Industries Ltd
This industrial area is constituted of
Three solvent extraction plants (SEP)
 SEP-I 400 tones seeds intake /day and it is a continuous plant giving an output
of 22% oil.
 SEP-II 600 tones seeds intake per day giving an output of 22 % oil.
 SEP-III 500 tones seeds intake /day and it is a continuous plant giving an
output of 22% oil.
 Ruchi soya has following number of employee-
 Permanent Staff: 900 (50 %Staff +50%Worker)
 Contract workers- 200(variable)

6. PROCESS IN SEP
 The processing of oil seeds presents unique challenges because the process
requires the drying, cleaning, cracking, expressing, cooking, flaking and
extraction of the oil cake or collets or flakes with a highly inflammable
solvent. The fire and explosion are likely to happen especially during cleaning
as a lot of dust is produced at the transfer chutes of the conveyors and
elevators and in extraction process. These disruptions along with dangerous
conditions during maintenance, breakdowns and startup of the plant are the
chief causes of incidents that result in fires and explosions in the oil seed
processing plants.

7. HAZARDS IN SEP
 Use of naked flames
 careless smoking habits,
 mechanical sparks,
 use of faulty or improper electrical equipment,
 misuse of electrical equipment,
 lack of proper control of temperature in process operations,
 spontaneous combustion in dry solid mass
 Static charges leading to fire.
Most of these hazards can be taken care of by proper design,
selection, operation and maintenance of equipment with emphasis on ‘ISI’
approved electrical equipment and appliances.
 Hexane, like other hydrocarbons, is prone to static generation during transfer
through a pipeline or while it is transferred from one vessel to another. Non-
conducting rubber belts used for driving machines can also generate static charge
on the surface and the spark can jump on the outrunning nip between belt pulleys.
Personnel wearing synthetic clothes could be another source of static generation.

8. PROBLEM DOMAIN
 The hazards and risk associated cannot be identified.
 Group of people who are at risk could not be known.
 Evaluation of safety measures among workers.
 Likelihood of occurrence can also not be known.
 Risk ranking cannot be done.
 Hazard Identification could not be done
And if all these are missing than the safety is missing
and the action needed for safety cannot be identified and
implemented.

9. Some hazards associated operations in
solvent extraction process
 Boiling solvent
 Solvents and chemicals being used.
 Water flowing through condenser.
 Electrical Isomantle.
 Disposal of waste.
 Material to be extracted.
 Solvent Vapors produced if condenser fails.
 Water fails or Solvent boils dry.

10. 40
23
35
23
34
20
15
22
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Physical Injury
Fire
Electric shock
Burn
Noise
Disease from dust
Total Singnificant
risk/hazard
Locations
Hazardsperyear
No Of Significant Hazards
Graph Showing Significant Number Of Hazards At Different
Locations Of A Solvent Extraction Plant For The Year 2011

11. SAFETY MEASURES AT SEP
1.Location and layout:-At least 30m distance from living area
and 1.5m high fencing around the plant. Boiler house at
least 30m away from SEP.
2.Electrical installation:-Flame proof construction and
earthing should be provided.
3.Restriction on smoking.
4.Precaution against friction:-All equipments should be non
sparking type. Nylon cloths, foot wear likely to cause sparks
by friction is prohibited.

12. SAFETY MEASURES AT SEP
5.Fire fighting apparatus:- Hydrant line ,sprinklers,
deluge system and portable fire extinguisher against
flammable liquid fire shall be provided at SEP.
6.Venting:-Tanks containing solvents shall be protected
with emergency venting to relieve excessive pressure in
the event of fire.
7.waste water
8.Ventilation
9.House keeping
10.Examination and the repair

13. FIRE FIGHTING AND SAFETY FACILITIES
 Eye washers
 ppe’s
 BA sets
 First aid facilities
 Safety slogans
 Fire extinguishers
 Sprinklers
 Hydrant lines
 Fire hooters and siren
 Detectors
 Fire buckets

14. Guidance and learning's
 One day training for workers
 I performed one day training for workers. In which I motivated them to
follow safe work practices and also told them that PPE’s are for there safety
and the should always take precautions to keep themselves safe.
 The proper demo of how to use PPE’s was given and the risk level at which
they were working was made known to them in order to make them aware of
how hazardous it could be if they will not follow safe procedures at work.
 Goal Setting And Feedback Chart
 There we learn in this method Goals are defined and set and then tasks are
allotted to different workers of different departments for achieving the goal
and then feed back is taken after a predefined time period of achieving the
goals and those workers whose performance is found poor are given training
for performance improvement and also in order to increase there knowledge
and awareness about the safety culture .

15. Areas that need explosion proof protection
 Seed unloading & cleaning section
 Seed storage section-silo & day bins
 Preparatory section
 Grinding/ pulverizing of white flakes
 Solvent extraction plant
 Meal finishing section
 Meal/doc storage
 Chances of dust explosion: may or may not be followed
by fire
 Chances of dust and hexane explosion: may or may not
be followed by fire
 Chances of hexane explosion: may or may not be
followed by

16. SOLUTION DOMAIN
 So here my aim was to make the workers to know the
importance of safety at solvent extraction plant and for the
purpose all the equipments were examined according to their
function & the ongoing processes.
 The Safety & fire fighting installations were checked and also
the recommendations were given where ever the maintenance
was required & leaks were found and also the use of PPE’s.
 So after performing the Evaluation of safety measures few
major risk related issues were solved & safety improvements
were done & future recommendations were also kept in mind
 For the purpose the Evaluation of safety measures is made
and is given for future reference.

17. EXPECTED OUTCOMES
To Reduce the occurrence of accidents. And hence
Increasing productivity
Lowering accidental cost
And ensuring good market value to the company
 To ensure safety at work by providing safe working
environment
 Increase efficiency of the worker.
 To develop safety awareness amongst the worker &
also the risk associated.

18. CONCLUSION
 The main aim of this PROJECT is to protect & aware the
workers from accidents and to ensure their safety at work.
 Safety is a very important aspect which
is needed to be given a greater importance
& level of risk could be minimized only by
a proper system which may be by hazard
identification which help us know the level
of risk as well as the method to minimize it
and ensure safety at work.

19. REFERANCES
1. Factory act 1948, schedule XVIII rule 107. By B.R.Potdar & Girish Patwardhan advocates
2. Indian Standards for Safety-By Dr K U Mistry.
3. NFPA 36 Standard for Solvent extraction plant. By National Fire Protection Association
4. Standards of Material safety data sheet
5. Hazardous Materials Exposure: Emergency Response and Patient Care [Paperback]
Jonathan Borak (Author), Michael Callan (Author), William Abbott (Author)
6 Impact of Solvent Extraction types on total polyphenols Content and Biological activity. Zohra
Mohammedi, Department of Biology, faculty of Science, university of Mascara, BP 305, Algeria,
7. Linear Programming Models of Solvent Extraction Plant By;
W. P. C. DUYVESTEYN, M.Sc. (Delft), J. R. CUTLAND, B.Sc. (London) ARCS, M.A. (Lancaster),And
J.R. L RUSSEL, M.Sc. (Warwick)
8. Investigation of the Effects of Extraction Solvent.
Barkat Ali Khan1*, Naveed Akhtar1, Akhtar Rasul1, Tariq Mahmood1,
9 Solvent Extraction Equipment Evalution Study By;BATTELLE
Pacific Northwest Laboratories Richland, Washington

20. Thank you