On November 18, 2024, a fire broke out in a leased warehouse in the Que Mountain Industrial Park in the starting of Jinan. After receiving the alarm, the Jinan Fire Rescue Detachment immediately dispatched fire rescue forces to the scene for disposal. It was found that the material was alkyd thinner stored in the warehouse, which produced a large amount of smoke during combustion. The area affected by the fire was about 80 square meters, and there were no casualties. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

The chemical industry is a pillar industry in our country and also a traditional advantageous industry. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, safety production of hazardous chemicals in our country is still in a critical period of climbing over difficulties and overcoming tough challenges. It not only has favorable conditions for the improvement of safety production but also faces the severe challenge of the叠加of new and old risks. In the process of enterprise production, there are flammable and combust materials in most factories; in the chemical industry, more than 80% of the production workshops contain flammable and explosive substances. If flammable and combust materials are not stored properly, accidents such as hazardous chemical explosions, leaks, and fires are likely to occur.

Case 1

Around 12 o'clock on January 4, 2023, a mixed acid (a mixture of sulfuric acid and nit acid) leakage accident occurred at Bengbu Shengguang Chemical Co., Ltd. located in the chemical industry park in Huai Shang District, Bengbu, Anhui Province. Although the accident did not cause any casualties, it caused significant social impact.

On August 12, 2015, a fire broke out in the hazardous materials warehouse of Ruihai Company in the Bai New Area of Tianjin, followed by two massive explosions. The accident resulted in 165 deaths, 8 missing persons, 798 requiring hospitalization, damage to 304 buildings, 12,428 vehicles, and 7,533 containers, with direct losses amounting to 6.866 billion yuan.

Dangerous chemicals are toxic and harmful, flammable and explosive, and improper storage can easily lead to safety accidents. The storage site of dangerous should be equipped with monitoring and alarm equipment that is stable, fast in response, free from false alarms, and real-time online. However, traditional monitoring equipment, to its characteristics, may produce false alarms and need regular calibration, making it impossible to achieve real-time online accurate monitoring.

Fixed reflection type laser gas remote sensor

The fixed reflector laser gas remote sensing instrument developed by Hanhai Optoelectronics uses laser absorption spectroscopy gas detection technology, with a range of up to 1 kilometer. It can detect various gases such as methane, ethylene, acetylene, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide carbon dioxide, and ammonia. It can perform real-time online monitoring without false alarms or missed reports. By using multiple fixed reflector laser gas remote sensing instruments in, a larger area monitoring network can be formed to detect gas leaks or accumulation early, ensuring the gas safety of the entire hazardous chemicals warehouse.

For accidents caused by hazardous chemical storage, emergency rescue robots can be used for pre-rescue investigation and protection.

Emergency rescue robot

The emergency rescue robot is an urgent equipment for emergency rescue in production safety that was announced and successfully promoted by the Ministry of Emergency in2024. Most industrial robots are equipped with touch and vision, but lack olfaction. However, robots working in environments with hazardous gases need olfaction detect and avoid risks. Especially in accident scenes with hazardous gases (such as chemical ports), the emergency rescue robot can enter the accident scene before the rescue (fireing) personnel, promptly send out the detected conditions in the accident scene, and provide a basis for formulating the rescue plan. This can avoid unnecessary sacrifices of (firefighting) personnel. The equipment has undergone 4 years of research and development, and has been used in the construction of the new Tibet railway tunnel China Railway 11th Bureau, achieving 24-hour real-time online monitoring of the tunnel construction, accurately obtaining the values of toxic and harmful gases in tunnel, and transmitting the monitoring data and images in real time to the digital control center. The use of this equipment can prevent the death of construction workers due to, and effectively reduce safety hazards such as fires and explosions.