Criticality Analysis for Braskem Hazardous Materials Transportation

The precarious situation of the Brazilian roads has demanded a more efficient management of the transporting companies of hazardous materials with the objective to prevent and to minimize accidents with possible actions for containment of releases with potential to reach communities and water resources.

In this context, DNV and BRASKEM companies had developed a methodology of qualitative risk analysis, called Criticality Analysis for Hazardous Materials Transportation. The objective of this methodology is identifying the most critical points of routes to make actions to avoid accidents.

In general, the risk of determined activity can be defined as a combination between frequency of occurrence of the activity and its consequences. The expression most common of the combination of frequency and consequence for the evaluation of the risk is the one considers that it as the product of the frequency for the consequences. This conceptualization of risk was used for the definition of the item of criticality evaluation, divided in two distinct categories: relative item of evaluation to the frequency of occurrence and to the consequences.

At the end, is possible the identification of stretches of bigger criticality of the transport route. For this stretches is necessary to propose actions to emergency control to reduce the frequency or to minimize the consequences of eventual accidents. Moreover, the construction of a criticality map is possible, in qualitative terms, of all the products carried for BRASKEM, with its respective routes, what it will be extremely important for the effective management of risks in the transport of hazardous materials.