Transportation of hazardous materials via pipeline. A historical overview

The transportation of hazardous materials via pipelines is often considered a safer alternative to other transportation modalities such as railway, road and ship. However, pipelines often cross industrial and highly populated areas, so that their failure can pose a significant risk to the surrounding environment and the exposed population: the possible release of flammable and/or toxic materials in such areas can generate catastrophic events with very severe consequences. A number of accidents have actually occurred in the past years, and even when no deaths or injured are reported, significant damages to the surrounding environment often occur. This suggests that, given the extremely wide extension of the network worldwide, and the very high amounts of transported materials, a careful analysis is still required. In addition, the construction of pipelines also involves the contribution of expertise from a range of technical areas. As a consequence, the occurrence of accidents and the impact of their consequences, depend on the combination of a large number of parameters. In the present paper, an analysis of data relative to pipelines transporting hazardous materials has been carried out, and the influence of specific issues connected with their type and operation, has been assessed

The impact of corporate governance on the market value of financial institutions : empirical evidences from Italy

This paper analyses how the quality of the Corporate Governance system impacts on the market value of Italian financial institution listed on Italian Stock Exchange. As implementing a good Corporate Governance is costly, this study is useful to verify if the investment is worth its cost. This work wants to fill a gap in literature: in fact there are few studies that have focused on financial institutions despite the central role that they hold in the real economy, especially in Italy where the enterprises are highly dependent on the banking system for their financing needs

Protection systems for tanks containing hazardous materials exposed to fire

The catastrophic failure of a tank containing a pressure liquefied gas often gives rise to a physical explosion with serious consequences for the possibly exposed people and structures. In fact, the liquid is at a temperature higher than its boiling temperature at atmospheric pressure, and, once released, it will instantaneously vaporize, with the generation of a shock wave. If the involved chemical is also hazardous (flammable or toxic), additional consequences are also expected (fires or toxic cloud dispersion), so that it is important to prevent the occurrence of this phenomenon as far as possible. Few studies are available in the literature to analyze the dynamics of this scenario, and, given the complexity of setting up experimental facilities, mainly theoretical approaches have been adopted, though some useful experimental results are also reported. The models proposed over the years allow to calculating the trend of the main parameters involved in the accident, but, in most cases, reference to a bare vessel has been made, while less attention has been devoted to assess the influence of protection systems, such as thermal insulation or pressure relief devices. In the present paper, a number of reference scenarios have been simulated involving both unprotected and protected systems, and the results have been analyzed and compared, to identify a proper strategy capable of significantly reducing the probability of failure of the tank

A simplified model for improving thermal stability of Lithium-ion batteries

Lithium ion batteries represent a well established technology in a range of applications (laptops, mobile phones, etc.) but they are becoming key factors in many other areas were reliability and safety are of paramount importance (e.g. the space and automobile industries). However, a number of drawbacks still raise concerns about their wider use and hamper a more structured introduction in these additional applications. In particular, the management of heat effects remains a challenge, as an excessive temperature rise can cause reduction of cycle life, battery failures and, above all, may lead to thermal runaway of individual cells or of an entire battery pack, with associated damages to the surrounding people or environment. In the present paper, a simplified model capable of predicting the thermal behaviour of a battery pack refrigerated with a cooling fluid, is presented. It allows to quickly estimating the efficiency of a given cooling system under specific working conditions, and thus identify the range of operation within which a given energy storage system can safely operate

qualitative thermal characterization and cooling of lithium batteries for electric vehicles

The paper deals with the cooling of batteries. The first step was the thermal characterization of a single cell of the module, which consists in the detection of the thermal field by means of thermographic tests during electric charging and discharging. The purpose was to identify possible critical hot points and to evaluate the cooling demand during the normal operation of an electric car. After that, a study on the optimal configuration to obtain the flattening of the temperature profile and to avoid hot points was executed. An experimental plant for cooling capacity evaluation of the batteries, using air as cooling fluid, was realized in our laboratory in ENEA Casaccia. The plant is designed to allow testing at different flow rate and temperatures of the cooling air, useful for the assessment of operative thermal limits in different working conditions. Another experimental facility was built to evaluate the thermal behaviour changes with water as cooling fluid. Experimental tests were carried out on the LiFePO4 batteries, under different electric working conditions using the two loops. In the future, different type of batteries will be tested and the influence of various parameters on the heat transfer will be assessed for possible optimal operative solutions

Blast waves produced by rapid phase transition of LNG on Water

Massive offshore and onshore storage of LNG have addressed the public concerns on all possible hazards on people and other installations either onshore or on ship. A discussion on blast waves produced by rapid phase transition of LNG on water covers risks related to the release of large amount of LNG; possible accidental scenarios; the phenomenon of Rapid Phase Transition (RPT); use of an acoustic model to define explosion pressure and total energy produced by the RPT of LNG; significant impacts to public safety and property from accidental spills; and acoustic evaluation of pressure wave produced by the rapid phase transition of LNG released accidentally on water. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 42nd Loss Prevention Symposium (New Orleans, LA 4/6-10/2008)