re: Double Update: Peroxide (not Ammonia) plant explodes in Crosby, TX

LINK

How much is on site?

They may have Ammonia on site for the refrigeration systems, but that shouldn't be an explosion hazard if the relief valve systems are properly designed. Ammonia probably not the problem - the organic peroxides and other materials that require refrigeration for stability is the likely risk of explosion.

I worked in a plant with an ammonia unit.

Anhydrous ammonia needs to be stored at very low temps to keep it liquified for transportation.

If/when the ammonia storage tanks lose cooling the ammonia will heat up to outside temp and vaporize.

Pressure in the tank will rise until it burst the pressure relief device, which will release a huge cloud of ammonia.

The tanks are designed to relieve all the pressure to the atmosphere before it could explode. Only thing that could make it explode is a fire heating the tank at extreme rates.

Ammonia is very hazardous in high concentrations. It's an asphyxiant and will react with your mucus in your lungs/throat causing breathing problems. Also will react with the water in your eyes and can cause blindness.

A bulletin from the company:

The site anticipated the storm, and safely shut down all operations before hurricane landfall. The facility has had extraordinary levels of rain, receiving approximately 40 inches by Monday afternoon. The site has been heavily flooded and without electric service since early Sunday morning. Back-up generators have largely been inundated with water. A small ride-out crew of eleven people had remained on site for some days.

As of late this afternoon, the situation at the Crosby site had become serious. In order to ensure the safety of our ride-out team, all personnel have been evacuated from the site at this time. We are working with the Department of Homeland Security and the State of Texas to set up a command post in a suitable location near our site. We also have been in contact with other regulatory authorities, who are aware of this situation.

Arkema manufactures organic peroxides at the Crosby plant. The primary challenge has been maintaining refrigeration for these products, which are stored at low temperature. The site lost refrigeration to all of its cold-storage warehouses when electrical power was lost and back-up generators were flooded. Our team then transferred products from the warehouses into diesel-powered refrigerated containers, and continued to monitor the situation.

At this time, refrigeration on some of our back-up product storage containers has been compromised due to extremely high water, rising to levels that are unprecedented in the Crosby area. Arkema is limited in what it can do to address the site conditions until the storm abates. We are monitoring the temperature of each refrigeration container remotely. At this time, while we do not believe there is any imminent danger, the potential for a chemical reaction leading to a fire and/or explosion within the site confines is real.

We have no higher priority than the safety of our employees, neighbors and the environment. We have been working without pause to keep our materials safe.

The latest: within the last hour

Arkema CEO says the plant will catch fire and explode anytime within the next six days

Everyone in a 1.5 mile radius evacuated. CEO says explosion imminent.

And now we wait...

So if we know it will blow at some point over the next six days, how about we just blow it up now so the cleanup can begin?

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So if we know it will blow at some point over the next six days, how about we just blow it up now so the cleanup can begin?

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Wouldn't the fire burn off all the hazardous chemicals? Maybe a controlled blast would be their best option at this point?

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By ourselves?

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I am willing to video.