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Port Arthur Pyrolysis Tower Collapse - 1

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MJCronin

Mechanical
Apr 9, 2001
5,097
Fire yesterday causes tower to collapse at BASF TotalEnergies Petrochemicals refinery in Port Arthur, TEXAS !

The fire broke out Tuesday at about 10:45 a.m. in the pyrolysis gasoline unit at the refinery

No one was reported injured and all employees have been accounted for.



MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
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so what chemical is now going to have a worldwide shortage to further bugger up supply chain?
 
so what chemical is now going to have a worldwide shortage to further bugger up supply chain?
The fire broke out Tuesday at about 10:45 a.m. in the pyrolysis gasoline unit at the refinery
I am going to take a wild guess and say gasoline? grin
I could be wrong. The gasoline fire may have taken out a different part of the process.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!
 
Google says pyrolysis towers are used to process biomass into oil. There is a recent diesel replacement fuel called R99 that is bio-based. I assume this is going to impact that fuel. My fleet has been required to run R99 since January 1st.
 
It seems really odd to me that it would collapse in that way. I wonder if this wasn't a partial-vacuum problem as well?
 
Pyrolysis is done in the absence of oxygen. Vacuum pyrolysis is one method.

Edit: that was a coincidental autocorrect error.
 
Internal fires occasionally happen during a shutdown - either catalyst that has not been properly deactivated, or residue that catches fire after the introduction of air. The internal temperature may have been 1500°F or more - and the self-weight combined with any slight wind would cause a buckling failure like that.
 
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