Understanding the dispersion of industrial Releases of Anhydrous Hydrogen Fluoride and the associated Risks to the Environment and People (URAHFREP)
URAHFREP was a research project conducted under the European Community (EC) Fourth Framework Programme. The URAHFREP project addressed an identified need for understanding the chemical and physical processes involved in the release and dispersion of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in moist atmospheres to allow an estimate of risk levels from industrial releases.
The main aims of the project were:
- Collecting quality datasets to help resolve the uncertainties when assessing the risk to the environment and people from industrial releases of HF
- To use the datasets to improve and validate models for predicting the dispersion of anhydrous HF releases in high humidity and low wind speed conditions, which may cause the releases to lift clear from the ground due to buoyancy.
The project ran for 3 years, starting in May 1998. It was coordinated by HSE and jointly funded by the EC, CEA, Institut de Protection et de Sureté Nucléaire (IPSN), HSE, AEA Technology, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SNV), Swedish Defence Research agency (FOI) and ICI.
The strategy was to develop dispersion models from fundamental thermodynamic data, and wind tunnel data of buoyancy phenomena, and then validate the models against the field data.
To meet the aims, one or more of the project partners pursued the following work packages:
| WP1 | Experimental Design and Safety Case |
| WP2 | Dispersion characteristics of ‘industrial’ releases of HF |
| WP3 | HF Source Terms |
| WP4 | Wind tunnel simulation of the dispersion behaviour of buoyancy conserving gas clouds |
| WP5 | HF Thermodynamics for HF/water vapour/air and HF/water vapour/air/iso-butane systems |
| WP6 | Data analysis and archiving in the REDIPHEM format |
| WP7 | Mathematical model development and validation |
| WP8 | Chamber experiments to assess dose-response characteristics for a variety of flora and to assess the ‘indoor’ deposition of HF |
| WP9 | HF Toxicology |
| WP10 | Project Management and Co-ordination |
| WP11 | Reporting |
Additional work packages not funded by the EC were:
| WP12 | Water-spray Mitigation Studies (funded by industry) |
| WP13 | Environmental studies at Porton Down, UK (funded by CEA and HSE) |
The partners involved were:
| Main contractors | Role (lead underlined) | ||
| HSE | = | Health and Safety Executive, UK | WP1, WP2, WP3, WP9, WP10, WP12 |
| CEA | = | Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, France | WP1, WP2, WP13 |
| SUAS | = | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | WP8 |
| Associated contractors | |||
| BRE | = | Building Research Establishment, UK | WP1, WP4 |
| AEAT | = | AEA Technology, UK | WP1, WP3, WP7 |
| RISØ | = | RISØ National Laboratory, Denmark | WP1, WP2, WP6, WP7 |
| FOI | = | National Defence Research Establishment, Sweden | WP8 |
Six reports on the URAHFREP project can be downloaded below. HSE is also in the process of collating additional URAHFREP reports, datasets and videos, which were originally distributed to the project partners on CD. These will be uploaded here in due course.
- Ramsdale, S. A., and Tickle, G. A. (2001). Review of lift-off models for ground based buoyant clouds. AEA Technology Report AEAT-4262 Issue 2. File: AEAT Lift-off Review.pdf
- Tickle, G. A. (2001). Integral modelling of the dilution and lift-off of ground based buoyant plumes and comparison with wind tunnel data. AEA Technology Report AEAT/NOIL/27328006/001 Issue 2. File: AEAT Lift-off Modelling.pdf
- Tickle, G. A. (2001). Thermodynamic modelling of anhydrous HF / moist air / immiscible component mixtures and validation against experimental data. AEA Technology Report AEAT/NOIL/27328006/002 Issue 2. File: AEAT HF Thermodynamic Modelling.pdf
- Tickle, G. A. (2001). Model predictions compared with URAHFREP Campaign 2 field trial data. AEA Technology Report AEAT/NOIL/27328006/003 Issue 2. File: AEAT Field Trial Comparisons.pdf
- Kemp, C. C., and Newland, M. S. (2000). HF Thermodynamics Tests: Data Report. AEA Technology report AEAT/R/NS/0028. File: AEAT HF Thermo Tests Data Report.pdf
- Tickle, G. A., Ramsdale, S. A., Kemp, C. C., and Newland, M. S. (2001). Understanding the Dispersion of Industrial Releases of Anhydrous Hydrogen Fluoride and the Associated Risks to the Environment and People (URAHFREP): Final Summary Report Work Package 5- HF Thermodynamic Data & Work Package 7- Model Development and Validation. AEA Technology plc contract report. URAHFREP: PL 971152: Contract ENV4-CT97-0630. File: AEAT Final Summary Report.pdf
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