Guidelines for Safe Degassing of Rail Tank Cars

In Europe, degassing of Rail Tank Cars (rtc’s) is mostly done at rtc workshops and not at specialised cleaning stations. Workshops offer this activity as an extra service to their customers.

The degassing operations and associated activities like tank entry and nitrogen purging, are hazardous activities which require the right equipment, skilled personnel, detailed procedures  and, above all, a proper safety management system.

The scope of this document includes:

- Degassing (gas freeing) of  rtc’s containing flammable gases (LPG,  propylene, butadiene, C4 mixtures...)
- Testing the rtc atmosphere during and after degassing
- Tank entry after degassing
- Nitrogen purging  
- Labelling and marking of rtc’s, degassed or to be degassed

These guidelines are aimed at advising rtc workshops in order to perform these activities in a safe way. 

CEFIC 2012