Refinery Safety – Hydrofluoric Acid Leak Injures 7 Workers During Turnaround

Refinery turnarounds and startups are the periods of highest risk to refinery workers. It’s the time when most accidents happen. A lot of work and preparation goes into managing the safety of operations during these activities.  While the goal is to balance safety against efficiency, it is not always an easy task. The recent incident at the Ferndale Phillips 66 refinery, here in our own back yard, where several workers were exposed to an extremely corrosive agent, hydrofluoric acid, demonstrates this fact.  Hydrofluoric acid is so corrosive that it is used to etch patterns in glass, and is used in refineries as a catalyst in the alkylation process of making a high-octane gasoline component.

Making industrial operations safer by providing high-quality process information to industrial workers is why everyone at AIS comes to work each day. It’s what drives us. It is our passion. Several years ago, personal friends of ours were killed in an industrial accident that could have been prevented with timely and relevant information. It is our goal as a company to provide software solutions that do this.  Our thoughts and prayers are with these injured workers and their families as we look for better ways and better products to make their jobs safer.

Here is a link to this incident.