Incident case histories on mobile containers

While handling liquids in rigid intermediate bulk containers (RIBC), the assessment of ignition sources due to electrostatic discharges is of especial interest since it is often difficult to rule out all possible conditions which can lead to the generation of an effective discharge. Far from suggesting new criteria for the selection or construction of RIBC or standards for its design, this paper has the aim of describing three incidents where an electrostatic discharge caused a flammable mixture of vapours with air to ignite. Situations presented could usually be rated as highly remote on its probability of occurrence by operators since they are common and never caused an incident, but on the other hand it is rather easy, from a theoretical point of view, to explain the phenomena observed by applying the basic assessment rules for the generation of electrostatic ignition sources. If existing guidelines were to have been followed (mainly CENELEC 50404 and BGR132), those incidents would have not occurred.