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Placid Refining (2366), Port Allen
Causal Factor: Equipment Failure
| LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date |
Point Source(s) | Notes | Amount of Release |
| 79312 2005-05-24 | Sour Water Stripper | Cause: Fouling in Sour Water Stripper Followup: No Notes: No information given on remedial actions or preventive measures. Hazmat incident # 05-3393 | Sulfur Dioxide: 3,820.0 pounds |
| 77713 2005-03-21 | Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU) | Cause: Catalyst fouling in Placid's Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU) Followup: No Notes: Requiring a unit shutdown to replace the heat exchanger bundle. Catalyst was replaced. Another multi-day massive Sulfur Dioxide release from the Treater Unit. It seems that the unit was releasing excessive Sulfur Dioxide for 20 days in a row. Hazmat incident # 05-01867 | Sulfur Dioxide: 19,940.0 pounds |
| 77564 2005-03-11 | Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU) | Cause: An internal (not exposed to the atmosphere) heat exchanger tube leak resulted in catalyst fouling in Placid's Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU). Followup: No Notes: Requiring a unit shutdown to replace the heat exchanger bundle. Hazmat incident # 05-08167 | Sulfur Dioxide: 35,860.0 pounds |
| 77406 2005-03-06 | Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU) | Cause: An internal (not exposed to the atmosphere) heat exchanger tube leak resulted in catalyst fouling in Placid's Tail Gas Treater Unit (TGTU). Followup: No Notes: Exchanger bundle has been repaired. First in a series of major releases of Sulfur Dioxide from the Treater Unit. Hazmat incident # 05-01543 | Sulfur Dioxide: 19,456.0 pounds |
| 76358 2005-01-21 | Alkyation Unit | Cause: Incident was caused by a failure of a site glass on a process vessel. Result of equipment failure Followup: No Notes: the affected area (valves) was manually blocked in and the site glass is being rebuilt to prevent reoccurence. | Hydrofluoric Acid: 40.0 pounds Propane: 15.0 pounds |
| 111650 2008-12-28 | No Information Given | Cause: The cat gas hydrotreater was shutdown as a result of the FCC unit shutdown and this failure resulted in flaring during startup. Followup: No Notes: Heat tracing has been installed on the discharge flow transmitters. | |
| 111382 2008-12-12 | FLARE FCCU/Flange Leak | Cause: Failed circuit breaker Followup: No Notes: Facility's electrical department is working to redesign breaker | |
| 109577 2008-09-24 | FLARE | Cause: Sulfur recovery unit out of service Followup: No Notes: Sour water off-gases with Hydrogen Sulfide being flared while sulfur recovery unit down. Incident #109595 serves as follow up and sour gases taken out of flare and put back into sulfur recovery unit 9/25/2008. | |
| 116009 2009-06-25 | Flare | Cause: Placid#3 sulfur unit experienced a malfunctioning PLC due to overheating. Resulting in the flaring of acid gas and sour water. Followup: No Notes: Placid installed a cooler on the PLC panel. | Sulfur Dioxide: 940.0 pounds |
| 115997 2009-06-25 | Flare stack, EQT016, EPN 18-74 | Cause: No. 3 sulfur unit experienced a malfunctioning PLC, due to overheating, which resulted in flaring of acid gas and sour water. Followup: No Notes: No information given | Sulfur Dioxide: 10,520.0 pounds |
| 114651 2009-05-03 | Placid's Marine recovery | Cause: Placid's Marine vapor recovery unit malfunctioned due to high temperatures. Followup: No Notes: no information given. Placid was granted a variance on its title V permit. VOC's controlled by the carbon absorption system to another control device in order to repair the system. | |
| 112709 2009-02-11 | FCCU | Cause: Placid's emergency shutdown system was activated in the FCC unit due to a closing control valve and low main air blower discharge flow. During the shutdown valve leaked and the gases ignited. Flaring of debutanizer occurred during start up and shutdown. Followup: No Notes: Fire extinguished, eliminated charge from unit, unit brought back online. In addition, training was conducted to prevent similar incidents in the future. | |
| 127340 2010-10-28 | FLARE: Boiler & Flare Stack (EPN 18-74 EQ016) | Cause: Refinery letter states that due to a low waste heat boiler level, flaring occurred. Fire eye problems caused the plant to be shut down longer than expected. Refinery letter states that "it should be noted that flaring continued for approximately one hour and seven minutes more due to the Flare Gas Recovery System being shut down during acid gas flaring. However, during that time, no sour material was flared." FLARE. Followup: No Notes: RQ. Reportable quantities were exceeded. Bridles were cleaned. | Sulfur Dioxide: 4,350.5 pounds |
| 126184 2010-09-07 | Tank 17 - flange on an oil transfer line | Cause: A flange on an oil transfer line south of Tank 17 was discovered leaking gas oil which is a heavy hydrocarbon. Followup: No Notes: RQ. Reportable quantities were exceeded for gas oil. The line was blocked, the dike area was also blocked, and the spill was contained with absorbent pads, boom and a vacuum truck. | Gas Oil: 294.0 gallons |
| 125988 2010-08-28 | FLARE: FCCU Unit | Cause: Flaring due to unexpected FCCU shutdown due to a malfunctioning flapper valve, which caused catalyst carryover. FLARE. Followup: No Notes: BRQ. Refinery letter states that no reportable quantities were exceeded. No additional information given. | |
| 126002 2010-08-28 | FLARE: FCCU Unit | Cause: Refinery letter states that flaring occurred due to unplanned FCCU shutdown caused by a malfunctioning flapper valve. Followup: No Notes: BRQ. No information given. | |
| 125903 2010-08-24 | FLARE: FCCU Unit | Cause: Flaring of slightly sour stream due to unexpected shutdown of FCCU because of air blower failure. No information given re: what was released. FLARE. Followup: No Notes: BRQ. Refinery letter states that calculations determined that no reportable quantities were exceeded. No information given. | |
| 130687 2011-04-17 | No Information Given | Cause: State police report states that an there was an equipment failure of an unknown cause. However, in an effort to isolate the leak that was discovered, a fire started. The leak was composed of naphtha and was burned into the air. FIRE. Followup: No Notes: The leak was isolated. Liquid was contained in a concrete curbed area. The liquid would drain to the sewer system to be processed and discharged. Placid Refining Fire Fighters were called to put out the fire. LDEQ report only. No Refinery Letter. | |
| 137201 2012-02-14 | SRU #2 | Cause: The #2 Sulfur Recovery Unit shut down and the product was being incinerated rather than converted. Followup: No Notes: No mention of remedial actions mentioned in the report. The Incident Report from the refinery is missing from the file. No refinery letters. | Sulfur Dioxide: 900.0 pounds |
| No LDEQ Reported 2012-01-19 | SRU #2 | Cause: There was excess SO2 emissions as a result of a plugged quench column. The plugged column was drained frequently to prevent further operational problems but required a temporary bypass of the tail gas treating unit #2 (TGTU 2), which treats gas from the SRU3 and sends it to the Sulfur recovery unit incinerator no. 2 (SRUI2). Followup: No Notes: To minimize excess emissions the maximum load possible was shifted to SRU 2 and acid gas production was reduced, feed to the SRU plants, by reducing FCCU and Diesel Hydro-treating processing rates during this period to minimize the load on SRU3. The column was drained frequently due to the timing of the planned turnaround versus longer TGTU2 outage that would have resulted in more overall SO2 emissions and a reportable quantity exceedance. Notification states that the discharges was in exceedance of the SO2 permit level that spanned a 7 day period. Also exceeded the maximum lb/hr permit level (4.25) for the source. | Sulfur Dioxide: 1,177.0 pounds |
| No LDEQ Reported 2013-09-11 | Cause: At approximately 15:50 hours on September 11, 2013, Placid's #3 Sulfur Recovery Unit had shutdown resulting in excess SO2 emissions from the #2 Sulfur Recovery Unit Incinerator. The cause of the shutdown was due to a failed fuse on an Air Blower. Unit adjustments were made to prevent flaring of Acid Gas and to redistribute sulfur load through the #2 SRU. Followup: No Notes: At 15:51 #3 SRU was restarted and by 16:42 SO2 emissions from the #2 Incinerator were below 250 ppm. Emissions from #3 SRU upset is 95 lbs of SO2 total during the event. Amount exceeds Placid's maximum lb/hr air permit limits for one hour of operation. Amount is below the established 500 pound RQ for SO2. | Sulfur Dioxide: 95.0 pounds | |
| 146198 2013-01-21 | electric fan/blower motor on Placid's internal vapor combustor | Cause: At approximately 1315 hours on 1/21/13, an electric fan/blower motor on Placid's internal vapor combustor failed (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041). A complete shutdown of the vapor combustor resulted from the fan motor failure.
The official root cause of the incident is mechanical failure. Followup: No Notes: At the time of the combustor shutdown emissions from barge loading of sour naptha, truck rack loading and applicable storage tanks were being controlled by the combustor. As designed, upon loss of the combustor, all loading activities were automatically interrupted. Placid switched control of the truck rack and barge loading emissions to the carbon unit and resumed loading. However, switching storage tank emissions to the carbon unit was not possible. Placid discontinued nonessential movements through tankage during this period, however, VOC emissions did occur as a result of this mechanical failure and the RQ for total VOCs, benzene, and 1,3 Butadiene were exceeded. During the time of the combustor outage Placid personnel conducted perimeter air monitoring. All readings were non-detect. Placid expedited removal and repair of the applicable motor and had it back in service at 1815 on 1/23/13. They admit that there was off-site impact in the form of air dispersion. Placid repaired the motor in question and review PM procedures to ensure they are adequate. There were no injuries or emergency conditions. | Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): 10,899.0 pounds Benzene: 51.6 pounds 1,3-Butadiene: 118.4 pounds |
| 153201 2014-01-06 | internal vapor combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041) | Cause: Placid's internal vapor combustor (source ID 1-91, EQT 0041) was not operating upon an inspection conducted by an Environmental Engineer. The combustor was serviced upon notification. During the outage, only Placid's Tank Farm was routed to the combustor. Placid has no known reason why the combust or failed other than this was through a period of abnormally cold weather. VOC emission did occur as a result of this failure and the Benzene RQ was exceeded at 21lbs. Root cause was determined that operator error. Shut down alarm was not acknowledged. Followup: No Notes: 3,205.63 lbs of VOC were released. Placid's Engineering and Terminal Departments are currently reviewing adding alarms to the terminal control system. In one part of the report, Placid states that the root cause of the failure was operator error. However, later they cite that the accident was the result of mechanical failure. | 1,3-Butadiene: 0.0 pounds Benzene: 21.1 Biphenyl: 0.1 pounds Butene: 4.0 pounds Cresol: 0.0 pounds Cumene: 0.7 pounds Ethylbenzene: 6.8 pounds Ethylene: 0.0 pounds Isooctane: 22.1 pounds Naphthalene: 0.7 pounds n-Hexane: 75.9 pounds Phenol: 0.3 pounds Propylene: 0.0 pounds Styrene: 0.7 pounds Toluene: 114.7 pounds Xylene: 53.9 pounds |
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