Responsible Care goals at Synfuels Plant see progress

In February, Dakota Gas established five overall plant-wide goals.

Dakota Gasification Company - September 20, 2012

Dakota Gasification Company made a commitment to protect the environment, its employees and the community through the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care program.

Each year, goals are set to improve in various areas of the plant. In February 2012, Dakota Gas established five overall plant-wide goals. See the full report here: 2011 Responsible Care Performance Report. An update on these goals follows.

Goal: Evaluate additional methods to improve coal dust management efforts in the coal handling process areas.
Update: Dakota Gas is working with consultants on dust control improvements throughout the coal handling facility. This includes new style scrapers, tighter inspection doors, engineered transfer chutes, impact idler upgrades, dust curtain upgrades, vacuum systems and automated wash down systems. Additionally, Dakota Gas added manpower to manage coal dust with focused training on cleaning and management of coal dust.

Goal: Develop a more robust near miss/incident investigation program that includes electronic reporting, data management, investigation through a root-cause methodology, and a corrective action system that addresses incidents more quickly.
Update: A new computer software program called Dakota Incident Reporting (DIR) was deployed in early 2012. DIR provides a reporting platform for accidents/injuries, process safety, fire, and security incidents on a real-time basis. All incidents are investigated with the appropriate level of effort applied using a root-cause approach. Incident reports are available in DIR for employees to provide a “lessons learned” communication tool.

Goal: Research and develop efforts to further reduce the volatility of tar oil products to further reduce volatile organic material (VOC) emissions.
Update: Efforts to continuously reduce VOC emissions include the completion of the installation of floating roofs in the tar oil tanks this summer.

Goal: Develop a comprehensive mechanical integrity program to prevent potential process safety or environmental releases. This will be done through an aggressive risk-based inspection and management system.
Update: Life Cycle Engineering Consultants (LCE) is working with Dakota Gas to help with the Total Process Reliability (TPR) initiative that began in early 2012. Dakota Gas created a steering committee to help manage the overall effort, assigned a full-time facilitator, and created focus groups including employees from the engineering, process operations and maintenance departments to help develop a robust mechanical integrity program. These groups are developing TPR program elements and will be working over the next 12-18 months to develop a more stream-lined and effective mechanical integrity program.

Goal: Modify the health and safety program to focus on accident/injury reporting metrics that are more practical and support efforts to further reduce injuries.
Update: The accident/injury reporting metrics were modified in conjunction with the new incident reporting system (DIR). The metrics focus on recordable accidents/injuries, from an overall plant perspective to specific locations, root causes, and corrective actions.

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