Accidental scenarios and modelling of distances of associated effects for methanization installations of agricultural and industrial size. Report study

Within the framework of projects of development of methanization units and of biogas production and storage units, it is interesting to be able to assess, from the first design stages, the main accidental consequences with respect to envisaged installations, in order to select the locations of future installations, technologies to be chosen, and the main safety constraints to be taken into account. Thus, this study reports model-based calculations of distances of different effects (explosion and toxic dispersion) in the case of upper bound scenarios for the main typical cases met on sites of agricultural and industrial size. After a recall of risks related to methane and to biogas, and also a brief return on experiences, the authors reports the assessment of the intensity of hazard potentials and of dangerous phenomena (regulatory thresholds, hypotheses and modelling principles, results of modelling calculations of explosion effects, thermal effects and toxic effects).