Chlorine Makers Commit To Upgrading Rail Cars

Several major chlorine producers announced plans on Nov. 15 to replace their entire U.S. and Canadian railcar fleets by the end of 2017 with a new generation of tank cars that will feature multiple safety and security enhancements.

Occidental Chemical, Dow Chemical, U.S. Magnesium, and Bayer MaterialScience have established a chlorine rail tank car development coordination panel, which the companies say will work to accelerate the development of improved tank car designs that can eventually be used throughout the chemical industry.

The panel says it would welcome the participation of other chlorine shippers willing to commit to the same rail tank car replacement plans.

"Of all the aspects involved in the safe rail transport of chemicals, shippers like OxyChem can have the greatest positive impact on rail tank car design," says Stephen R. Fitzgerald, the company's senior vice president for manufacturing, engineering, and technology.

"While we believe the current rail tank car fleet is dependable, our commitment to health, safety, environment and security excellence, and continuous improvement leads us to support development of a next-generation tank car design that incorporates significant safety and security enhancements," Fitzgerald says.

The Chlorine Institute, an industry trade association, has agreed to facilitate the new panel, which will coordinate its activities with a joint-project team already established by Dow, Union Pacific Railroad, and Union Tank Car.

In August, those companies announced a multistep process for developing a next-generation rail tank car for highly hazardous chemicals that provides a five- to 10-fold improvement in safety and security performance over tank cars currently in service (C&EN Online Latest News, Aug. 9).

The initial aim of that project is to develop improved tank cars for transporting chlorine and other toxic inhalation hazards, says Henry Ward, project leader and global director of transportation safety and security for Dow. Subsequent generations of the project, he says, will address shipments of flammable gases, such as ethylene oxide, and then a group of environmentally sensitive chemicals that includes chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Frank Reiner, vice president of transportation and emergency preparedness at the Chlorine Institute, says there have been at least 1.5 million rail shipments of chlorine since record keeping began in 1965 and that only 11 tanks have been breached. But in the past four years, there have been two fatal railroad accidents that involved releases of chlorine from punctured tank cars. "It's a pretty tremendous safety record but one that obviously has to be improved when you look at these recent incidents," Reiner remarks.

A fuller discussion of the safety issues of hazmat transport will be available in the Nov. 20 issue of C&EN.