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Valero (1238), Meraux

LDEQ Accident Report

Accident #100603
State Police #07-06601
Accident Date2007-10-30
Report Date 2007-11-06
Follow-up Date 0000-00-00
Follow-up: No Information Provided

Pollutants Released

Pollutant Duration Point Source Greenhouse Gas Criteria Pollutant Ozone forming chemical Amount of Release
Sulfur Dioxide40mMalfunction at the offsite vendor facility which provides hydrogen to Murphy. (Could this be Air Products - see incidents # 93737, 98860, 99344, 99713)NOYESNO30.0 pounds

Accident Classified As:

Cause of Problem: Process Upset

On 10/28/2007, MOUSA conducted an emergency shut down of the #3 SRU after being forces to shut down the Hydrocracker (its source of acid gas) following a malfunction at the office vendor facility which provides hydrogen to MOUSA. There was no malfunction or human error on the part of Murphy. On 10/30/2007, MOUSA stared the #3 SRU back up following the above mentioned shutdown

Discharge Preventable - No

Notes/Remedial Actions

This incident was not preventable because the shutdown of the hydrocracker and subsequent shutdown of the #3 SRU were the result of a malfunction at our offsite hydrogen vendor. BUT, the report says that yes, MOUSA could have attempted a startup without a bypass of the #3 TGT, but that MOUSA opted to use the safer TGT startup procedure of bypassing the TGT in order to better control Reactor Bed temperatures, which was more protective of personnel and equipment. The more aggressive startup optiif it had resulted in another exothermic reaction, could have damaged equipment and resulted in prolonged bypass of the #3 TGT, resulting in significantly greater sulfur dioxide emissions. Remedial Measures - MOUSA suspects that excess oxygen upset t