Safety Issues in Ammonia Handling and Distribution

Keywords: ammonia hazards, ammonia accidents

Ammonia is an important substance for the fertiliser and many other industries and therefore is produced, stored and distributed worldwide in large quantities. It is a potentially hazardous substance, capable of presenting toxic and explosion hazards. This paper describes its properties briefly and focuses on various issues which can affect safety in typical industrial operations during transfer, storage, distribution, processing and associated maintenance activities. It seeks to illustrate and emphasise the safety messages by giving examples of accidents, which unfortunately have happened. It refers to various guidance documents, which the fertiliser industry has produced from time to time. It also covers the main current safety legislation, focussing on the UK situation.

K D Shah MBE, BSc (Eng), CEng, CSci, FIChemE, CMIOSH, Shah4SHE, Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees, TS15 9NU, UK.

22 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, 20 references