Consequence modeling of liquefied petroleum gas accidental release from retail outlets in an African city residential environment

Abstract

AbstractThe drive by the Nigerian government to increase the usage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) within the country has led to the rapid growth of refill stations without adherence to international safety and regulatory guidelines on gas handling. This has increased associated hazards such as explosions and fires leading to loss of life and damage to properties. This study employed the Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres software to model the consequences of explosion and fire due to accidental leakage of LPG into the environment in four selected locations in the Ilorin metropolis under four scenarios. The longest threat zones were observed in Scenario II in all the selected refill stations. The flammability hazard for gas station 1 was predicted to be 98 and 238 m for the red and yellow threat zones, respectively. For thermal radiation, the predicted threat zones are 17, 27, and 43 m for 10, 5, and 2 kW/m2, respectively. January was observed to have the longest threat zones, particularly in the flammability hazard which indicates the influence of atmospheric weather conditions on dispersion. To reduce the accidental release of LPG, continuous enlightenment on safety rules is mandatory for all.