Risk Assessment on Storage
and Handling of Highly Toxic Chemical
in Rocket Industry
P. Srinivas and Muniyandy Elangovan
Abstract In solid propellant manufacturing of the rocket industry, many chemicals
are used, but among all Toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) is highly toxic and also recently
the threshold limit value (TLV) was amended from 0.005 to 0.001 ppm by American
Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). The exposure to TDI
occurs mainly through inhalation of vapors at workplace and storages; hence, TDI
is to be carefully handled due to its toxic nature which affects human health and
environment; therefore, spillage of Toluene di-isocyanate causes adverse effects, so
utmost care should be taken to avoid human exposure to the toxic vapors. Due to
industry demand, in processing of solid propellant, large quantity of TDI was used as
curator, which will be in the form of containers stored in bulk in designated storage
rooms of the order 8–16 tons. Any major spillage/leakage in this store may affect
the plant personnel as well as nearby residential area people in this paper; we evaluated the TDI evaporation rate and concentration level at residential area locations by
ALOHA software and as per the Acute Exposure Guideline Level (AEGL) or Emergency Response Planing Guidelines (ERPG), and by this, we found that at 5000 m
no significant concentration. At the same time, for the processing of solid propellant,
various methods of TDI handling require the usage of different types of valves, hoses,
and pipe fittings. Further, the failure modes of these handling components can lead
to TDI spill/leakage and evaluated the exposure concentration level for that spills by
using different hazard identification techniques. With the results, we conclude that
the concentration is within the acceptable range by applying risk control measures.
Keywords Toluene di-isocyanate · Threshold limit value · Spill · Hazard · Toxic
chemical
P. Srinivas · M. Elangovan (B)
Mechanical Department, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and
Technology, Chennai, India
e-mail: mmeikandan@veltech.edu.in
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_50
457
and Handling of Highly Toxic Chemical
in Rocket Industry
P. Srinivas and Muniyandy Elangovan
Abstract In solid propellant manufacturing of the rocket industry, many chemicals
are used, but among all Toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) is highly toxic and also recently
the threshold limit value (TLV) was amended from 0.005 to 0.001 ppm by American
Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). The exposure to TDI
occurs mainly through inhalation of vapors at workplace and storages; hence, TDI
is to be carefully handled due to its toxic nature which affects human health and
environment; therefore, spillage of Toluene di-isocyanate causes adverse effects, so
utmost care should be taken to avoid human exposure to the toxic vapors. Due to
industry demand, in processing of solid propellant, large quantity of TDI was used as
curator, which will be in the form of containers stored in bulk in designated storage
rooms of the order 8–16 tons. Any major spillage/leakage in this store may affect
the plant personnel as well as nearby residential area people in this paper; we evaluated the TDI evaporation rate and concentration level at residential area locations by
ALOHA software and as per the Acute Exposure Guideline Level (AEGL) or Emergency Response Planing Guidelines (ERPG), and by this, we found that at 5000 m
no significant concentration. At the same time, for the processing of solid propellant,
various methods of TDI handling require the usage of different types of valves, hoses,
and pipe fittings. Further, the failure modes of these handling components can lead
to TDI spill/leakage and evaluated the exposure concentration level for that spills by
using different hazard identification techniques. With the results, we conclude that
the concentration is within the acceptable range by applying risk control measures.
Keywords Toluene di-isocyanate · Threshold limit value · Spill · Hazard · Toxic
chemical
P. Srinivas · M. Elangovan (B)
Mechanical Department, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and
Technology, Chennai, India
e-mail: mmeikandan@veltech.edu.in
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_50
457