About Incident

1. BHOPAL UNION CARBIDE
SUBMITTED BY:
Aakash Limbodiya
Mayank Lobhane
Prakash Patel
Shashank Chourasia

2. Outlines
• Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India,
• Resulting in the immediate deaths of more than
3,000 people- Indian Supreme Court.
• Probable figure is that 8,000 died within two
weeks.
• Early hours of the morning of December 3,
1984.
• A Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant
released 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC)
gas,
• Exposing at least 630,000 people to toxic gases.
• Cited as the world's worst industrial disaster.

3. under the surface
• 1970s
Indian Government invites UCC to setup Sevin
plant.
Sevin is a pesticide which was majorly used in
southern Asian countries.
In production of that a chemical i.e. Phosgene was
used which was used in WW1.
Plant built in Bhopal to central location and
transport infrastructure.
Indian Government has 22% stake in UCC.
Plant initially approved for formulation only.

4. under the surface cont...
• late 1970s and early 1980s.
10 times the daily use amount of MIC stored
in plant.
Draught causes in market demand for
Sevin.
Plant confromed to much laxer standards
then sister plant West Virginia, US.

5. facts and figures

6. facts and figures

7. Results
• 45 Tonnes Of MI C and it s react ion product s
released.
• Cold wint er midnight of 2nd -3rd Dec.1984
• Bet ween 00:40 and 02:30 AM approx.
• At 30m (100f t ) height
• Moved as a 10m (30f t ) high wall
• Covered resident ial areas, main hospit als, railway
st at ion, 65 sq. km. area (25 sq. miles)
• Approx. 8000 immediat e deat hs, over 200,000
suf f ered
• Over 12,000 more died since, over 120, 000 st ill
suf f ering.
• Uc cont iued t o deny any long-t erm ef f ect s.

8. Ethical mistakes
• The plant was over desinged by 150%, at t he
insist ance of t he Head Quar t ers and against
t he advice of t he UC personnel in Bhopal.
This led t o t he loss and cost cut t ings due t o
lower capacit y ut ilizat ion
• Comput erized ear ly warning syst em and dat a
logger wer e not incopor at ed int o t he design
• Pr ocess design allowed f or long-t er m st or age
of ver y large quant it ies of MI C in t anks.
• Wat er spr ays were designed t o r each only 12-
15 met ers alt hough t he gases f rom t he f lare
wer e released at 30 met er s.
• Maximum allowable scr ubber pr essur e was 15
psi while t he r upt ur e disc allowing t he gas t o

9. ethical mistakes cont...
• A single st age, manual saf et y syst em was used
in place of an elect ronically cont r olled f our -
st age back-up saf et y syst em used in ot her
similar plant s.
• The design did not provide a backup syst em t o
diver t escaping MI C t o an ef f luent ar ea f or
quick neut ralizat ion as in Bayer’s MI C plant .
• A cont inuous r eact or design could have done
away wit h MI C st or age. Any r eact or leak
would have released a f ew kg, not t ons of MI C
and would not have af f ect ed beyond t he
boundar y.

10. SWOT
Strength
• Tie up in different countries leading to
better utilization of resources and higher
productivity.
• Varied businesses from specialty
chemicals to agrochemicals and
geographically diversified revenue stream.
Weakness
• There was no automatic pressure controlling
system.
• Water leaked into the tank E610 through the
wall.
• Water Curtain was not enough high to reach
the gas.
• Connecting pipe of the flare tower which was
designed to burn off the gas was removed
for the maintainance purposes.
• Lack of skilled operators
• Reduction of safety management.
• Plant location is close to a densely populated
area.
Opportunity
• They could have introduced an automatic
pressure controlling system.
• They could have work on a better divertion
system of MIC in case of leakage.
Threat
• The pressure of the E610 tank is 40 psi on
the place of 15 psi.
• Leaking of water in the tank results into
the exothermic reactions.
• Water curtain was not able to dilute or
detoxify the gas, because of short hieght.
• Failure of flare tower in buring off the gas.
• 2000 people died in immediate effect and
8000 died within 1 week.

11. THANK YOU