Interpretation Response #10-0244 ([Ashland, Inc.] [Mr. Gregory S. Phillips])

Below is the interpretation response detail and a list of regulations sections applicable to this response.

Interpretation Response Details

Response Publish Date: 02/08/2011

Company Name: Ashland, Inc.

Individual Name: Mr. Gregory S. Phillips

Location State: OH Country: US

View the Interpretation Document

Response text:

February 8, 2011

Mr. Gregory S. Phillips

Global Dangerous Goods Regulatory Process Manager

Ashland, Inc.

5200 Blazer Parkway, DS-4

Dublin, OH, 43017

Reference No.: 10-0244

Dear Mr. Phillips:

This is in response to your request for clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to segregation of hazardous materials. Specifically, you request guidance regarding the transport of Furfuryl alcohol based resins and acid catalysts on the same transport vehicle. You suggest that there is currently no prohibition in the HMR for transporting these materials together and that the transport of these products together can result in a highly exothermic reaction. Your questions and concerns are addressed below.

The segregation requirements for transportation by highway specify that hazardous materials may not be loaded, transported, or stored together except as provided in § 177.848. According to your incoming letter and subsequent emails with Rob Benedict of my staff, the Furfuryl alcohol based resin products you transport are "UN 2874, Furfuryl alcohol, Division 6.1, Packing Group (PG) III" or "UN 2810, Toxic liquid, organic, n.o.s., Division 6.1, PG III" while the acid catalysts you transport are "UN2924, Flammable liquid, corrosive, n.o.s., Class 3, 8, PG III," "UN2586, Alkylsulfonic acids, Class 8, PG III" or "UN3264, Corrosive liquid, acidic, inorganic, n.o.s., Class 8, PG III." Based on the classification of these materials, the segregation table found in § 177.848(d) does not explicitly prohibit these products from being transported together by highway. However, as specified in § 173.21(e), it is forbidden to offer for transportation or transport "[a] material in the same packaging, freight container, or overpack with another material, the mixing of which is likely to cause a dangerous evolution of heat, or flammable or poisonous gases or vapors, or to produce corrosive materials." Therefore, regardless of the segregation requirements in § 177.848, if the hazardous materials offered or transported will dangerously react when placed together in the same packaging, freight container or overpack they are forbidden to be transported together.

In accordance with § 173.22 of the HMR, it is the shipper's responsibility to properly class a hazardous material and assign it a proper shipping name from the Hazardous Materials Table (HMT; § 172.101). It is also the shipper's responsibility to segregate incompatible hazardous materials before offering them for transportation in commerce and to determine if the quantity and characteristics of those materials offered would cause a dangerous evolution of heat, flammable or poisonous vapors if mixed. This Office does not perform that function. However, based on the information and photographs you provided, it is the opinion of this Office that the materials you described cause a dangerous evolution of heat and should not be transported in the same packaging, freight container or overpack.

We recognize the concerns that you have regarding the transport of Furfuryl alcohol based resins and acid catalysts on the same vehicle, and we believe that these concerns are sufficiently addressed by the HMR as discussed above. However, if you believe that the existing requirements in the HMR are not sufficient, you may submit a petition to amend the HMR in accordance with the procedures set forth in 49 CFR Part 106.

I hope this satisfies your inquiry. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

T. Glenn Foster

Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch

Standards and Rulemaking Division

173.21, 173.22, 177.834

Regulation Sections