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Accident # | 143040 |
State Police # | 12-06260 |
Accident Date | 2012-09-16 |
Report Date | 2012-09-21 |
Follow-up Date | 0000-00-00 |
Follow-up: | No |
Pollutant | Duration | Point Source | Greenhouse Gas | Criteria Pollutant | Ozone forming chemical | Amount of Release |
Sulfur Dioxide | 12 h 5 m | Low Pressure Flare | NO | YES | NO | 418.0 pounds |
Accident Classified As: Below Reportable Quantity (BRQ)
On September 16, 2012 the Alliance Refinery began a planned and controlled start-up of its Sour Water Stripper (SWS) Unit following its unexpected shutdown for the approaching landfall of Hurricane Isaac. With the Refomner Unit 1391 starting up concurrently, refinery hydrogen production had also begun. Refinery hydrogen product is normally routed to various units and can be routed as well to the refinery's fuel gas system. However, due to the transient nature of refinery start-ups, select refinery units that normally consume hydrogen had not yet begin operations requiring some hydrogen production to be routed to the fuel gas system. It was discovered that this routing to the fuel gas system inadvertently caused a Fuel Gas Pressure Relief valve (410-PSV-30) to intermittently relieve to the Low Pressure (LP) Flare (308F-D-1) as it is designed. The mostly hydrogen based material became intermixed with some of the SWS overhead vapor traffic that was routed lei the LP Flare for only a very short period of time.
On 9/16/2012 there was an acccident from 1:30AM to 1:35PM (725 minutes) [it was discovered 9/16/2012 at 6:00AM]. Upon discovery of 410-PSV-30 relieving to the LP Flare, operational adjustments were made and the intermittent flaring stopped. No reportable quantities were exceeded. Linked to NRC report # 1024575. In the refinery letter they describe the pollutant released as mostly hydrogen, but the only quantity listed is for Sulfur Dioxide - 418 lbs (no emission calculations sheet attached).
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