Can we prevent industrial disasters like the “Boiler explosion in NLC thermal power plant”?
Introduction
Industrial disasters are the disasters caused by industrial companies, either by accident, negligence, or incompetence. They are a form of an industrial accident where great damage, injury, or loss of life are caused.
The recent incidents of the Boiler explosion in the NLC thermal power plant at Neyveli, Chennai, Gas leakage in Vizag, Visakhapatnam have acted like oil in the fire amidst the Covid-19 crisis, putting people’s lives at risk.
Reason of explosion
The incident occurred at the sixth unit of the Thermal Power Station-II. The main reason behind the 84-meter high boiler explosion is said to be the uncontrolled pressure and overheating of the outlet chamber of the boiler which resulted in a flash fire injuring six workers and two technicians.
How we can prevent such accidents
It is an unfortunate accident that most likely could have been averted by using proper management and new technology solutions. It is always better to prevent the problem way before it occurs. Pieces of equipment like boilers, chillers, and compressors are considered as the heart of many industrial factories.
The increase of pressure which resulted in an explosion could be a result of a faulty pressure relief valve or boilerplate corrosion or any other technical issue which was unmonitored.
As a result, the condition monitoring of these types of equipment is an important task which can be done by:
Manual Monitoring of Equipment, which requires certain no. of workers to take the readings and data from various equipment manually and then update the data in worksheets and analyzing them. This demerits of this process are: – Manual errors – No real-time data – Time-consuming process
Automated Real-time Monitoring of Equipment, involves the collection of data with the help of a smart system that continuously monitors and analyzes the various parameters from industrial equipment, day & night, and sends various alerts to specific users. Users can remotely monitor and take immediate actions preventing such disasters. One example of such a solution is, Elliot Systems Machine Management System provides real-time monitoring of various industrial equipment. It can capture analog parameters like temperature, pressure, and vibration and provide predictive alerts on important parameters. This information helps factory supervisors and owners in condition monitoring each equipment as well as reducing machine failure and maintaining an optimized production plan. It can also prevent disasters such as the one in Neyveli, Vizag, and Chattisgarh.
In addition, Elliot Systems Pvt Ltd provides custom solutions using Industrial IoT technology that can help customers prevent such industrial accidents, save money & have a more predictive maintenance schedule of their equipment.