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Louisiana Refinery Accident Database

ExxonMobil Refinery (2638), Baton Rouge

LDEQ Accident Report

Pollutants Released

Accident Classified As:

Cause of Problem: Human Factors

FOLLOW-UP REPORT: Root cause determined to be incorrectly calibrated level instrument. INITIAL REPORT: Refinery letter incidents that a process upset was the cause. MEA is used in several towers in the refinery to remove hydrogen sulfide from the hydrocarbon streams. A refinery MEA scrubbing tower, T-585, lost its MEA liquid level, allowing hydrocarbon vapor to enter the MEA system. This malfunction caused flaring. Combined incident involving both the ExxonMobil refinery and ExxonMobil Chemical Plant in Baton Rouge.

Discharge Preventable - Yes

FOLLOW-UP REPORT: States that incident was preventable as the root cause was an incorrectly calibrated level instrument. INITIAL REPORT: Refinery letter states that loss of MEA Scrubber Tower Level was NOT foreseeable or preventable, as there was no indication that loss of liquid would occur under these conditions. ExxonMobil believes this incident was not caused by improperly designed equipment, lack of preventative maintenance, careless or improper operation, or operator error.

Notes/Remedial Actions

INITIAL RESPONSE: Tower T-585 was isolated from the MEA system to eliminate the root cause of incident release potential. Unit operations were adjusted to minimize emissions potential and incident duration. The tower was isolated, and liquid level was restored to stop the incident. FOLLOW-UP RESPONSE: LDEQ states it will investigate further during next facility inspection.