Database for accidents and incidents in the biodiesel industry

• We made a review of biodiesel accidents and incidents around the world.
• An accidental and incidental database was developed.
• Lack of personnel trainning and expert knowledge on the biodiesel process.
• Facility risks mainly associated to raw material instead of final product.
• Fires are the most common type of accident.

The present paper describes the development of an accident and incident database for the Biodiesel Industry for the period 2003–November 2013. The work performed is related to the collection of data from different documental sources and the subsequent setting of a database containing general information about adverse events, its sequence, mitigation, causes, and human, environmental and material consequences occurring at biodiesel facilities during the last ten years. This database comes to fill a gap existing in this field. Availability of these data will allow applying risk analysis tools, having a management tool to check organization performance, generating lessons learned to avoid accident recurrence and identifying those accidents more likely to occur. Data statistical analysis shows that the frequency of accidents at biodiesel plants has an increasing tendency, being fires and explosions the main type of accidents that occurred. Immediate causes and consequences of the accidents have also been analyzed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn concerning the need of maintaining an update accidental and incidental database, and improving biodiesel plants safety based on information obtained.