Event
- Event ID
- 642
- Quality
- Description
The explosion occurred in a chemical plant manufacturing raw materials for cosmetics. Fluoro-nitro-benzene and liquid chemicals were mixed in a high-pressure reactor for the development of a new product. Hydrogen gas was then injected. During the production process, about 12 hours after the start of the reaction, an abnormal reaction occurred and the reactor exploded due to a sudden increase in pressure.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Country
- Japan
- Date
- Component involved
- reactor / oven / furnace / test chamber
- Failure mode
- internal explosion
- Initiating cause
- run-away reaction
- Root CAUSE analysis
Nothing is known on the runaway reaction, on the production procedures used, on the preventive and mitigating measures which could have been in place.
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 01/01/2020
Facility
- Application
- Chemical industry
- Sub-application
- cosmetics production
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
hydrogenation reactor
- Process temperature range [C]
- High temperature (100°C to 500°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- ambient pressure (around 0.1 MPa)
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location
- industrial area
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
WHAT IS FLUORONITROBENZENE
WHAT IS FLUORONITROBENZENE
Fluoro-nitro-benzene is an organic compound with the formula FC6H4NO2. It can be hydrogenated to give 4-fluoroaniline, which is a precursor to fluoroimide (a fungicide) and to parafluorofentanyl (an opioid).
Fluoro-nitro-benzene isomers are used to synthesise complex organic colorants, to be used for hair dyes
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
The original entry from RISCAD, was reproting 6 injuries. The KHK database does not report any injury.
In-depth data
- Release type
- Gas-liquid mixture
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2, nitrobenzene fluoride
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- KHK
- Reference & weblink
High Pressure Gas Accident Cases Database of the KHK (High Pressure Gas Safety Association): https://www.khk.or.jp/public_information/incident_investigation/hpg_incident/incident_db.html (accessed May 2025)
The first entry in HIAD was coming from RISCAD, which is now closed.
