Let ’ s talk about the 1 , 2 , 3 plans for initial response . ASTI have a saying “ Prevent them all or keep them small ” – which all makes sense when you think about it . So how do we prevent them ? Well , it means system compliance , training and more training . But it ’ s not all down to the operator , the company needs to buy into the process .

As I mentioned before there needs to be an inhouse safety culture developed and based around the fact that safety must become a lifestyle and is non-negotiable . In the US , if you don ’ t follow the correct protocols and there is an incident , you become seriously sanctioned and heavily fined . Wonder what will happen here in South Africa when the Department of Labour wakes up to that ?

Accidents can and do happen as we are human after all . That being the case , we need to have procedures in place to ensure an immediate and quick response to an incident ensuring “ we keep them small ”. The fire department / emergency services are really not the expert on hazardous releases – that is an industry requirement .

The fire department has its role with regards to dealing with any hazardous release .

A fire tends to stay put whilst an Ammonia release tends to move around , and its profile tends to be dictated by atmospheric conditions . If it ’ s a warm , low humid day , it tends to rise and drift away . However , if it ’ s a cold , high humidity day it tends to fall to the ground , and of course there is always the direction and strength of the wind to consider . Lots of contributing factors .

So that being the case , each response team player has their own particular role to play , this should be well defined before there is an incident . There needs to be a site emergency plan which includes an actual site plan with all of the positions of emergency equipment and personal protective equipment identified . I wonder … do you have such a plan ? Not too many sites I have visited have .

There needs to be critical task readiness , not just ‘ let ’ s do the exercise on the last Friday of the month at 15:00 before we go home ’. Rest assured the incident will not be at that time but it will catch you totally unawares . It ’ s important that the players know and understand the plan , making them aware of critical response procedures . This includes making the emergency

responders aware of the complexity of the problem when they arrive on site and communication with the whole site .

If you don ’ t manage the incident , it will manage you – manage the chaos . An interesting video I saw recently showed the 30-minute plan for response to an incident . What really stood out was that when there was an incident , everybody knew their role . Communication was key as when the information was being passed down the line there was always the feedback “ am I correct in understanding that what you are telling me is ” no misinterpretations in the transfer of information . So often the message gets lost in the detail , which is not where you want to be in an emergency .

So , it ’ s all about thinking of the procedures and responses . I may make it sound as if there are terrible consequences to having and running an ammonia plant . No – but every action and reaction can , and does , have consequences – it ’ s just about thinking ahead , doing risk assessments , and doing the right thing .

As a green refrigerant , ammonia is still one of the most efficient refrigerants and is currently being used to produce hydrogen as an energy source and has so many more uses than just refrigeration . Hang around

Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration . Since undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer , project engineer , refrigeration design engineer , company director for a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold store . He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry , is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry .

– there are some extremely interesting developments in the pipeline , climate change has brought about a whole new perspective to ammonia .

There are still some pertinent points I will be chatting about next time , so stay safe CLA