LA Bucket Brigade : Refinery Accident Database

About the Database

ExxonMobil Chemical Plant (286), Baton Rouge

Releases of Highly Reactive Volatile Organic Compounds

LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date	Point Source(s)	Notes	Amount of Release
87695 2006-03-09	Methane relief valve on POX heat-up-gun header Exchanger	Cause: Followup: No Notes: On 3/2706 they disocvered they had an on-going release of methane. A meter indicated the release started on 3/9/06. Methane was released at 3120 lbs/day. Methane was released at 3120 pounds per day.	100.0 pounds
97814 2007-07-12	T2 Tower, flange	Cause: On Xylene Recover Unit a flange on control valve on T2 Tower had vibration, causing it to leak. Followup: No Notes: Xylene did not exceed its RQ but 16 lbs of HRVOC added to 88 lbs of Xylene exceeded RQ on HRVOC.	16.0 pounds
111125 2008-11-30	Tower CT01	Cause: They have a leak on the "bottoms line" on Tower CT01 Followup: No Notes: Water was applied to wash down liquids. Incident caused by a leak on the "bottoms line" on Tower CT01. Unit was shut down. No quantities were exceeded. Material went off site and the air was not monitored.
127055 2010-10-13	HC-01 cracker compressor and 2nd stage safety valve	Cause: Followup: No Notes: Two events occurred at the plant within a 24 hour period. The combined emissions from the two events exceeded the RQ for HRVOCs (ethylene and propylene). On 10/13/10 at approximately 10:44 pm, HC-01 cracker compressor tripped, and all of the Ethylene Claification-West (ECLA-W) furnace effluent was routed to the wet flare system, prompting agency notifiation (LSP incident #10-05995). The investigation showed the root cause for the event was due to a loss of lube oil pressure to the compressor during a pump swap. The emergency controls automatically shut down the compressor to prevent damage. To end the release the compessor was restarted after the lube oil pressure was returned to appropriate levels. On 10/14/10 at approximately 10:45 pm, operators identified that the HC-01 2nd stage safety valve failed to reseat properly folowing the restart of the compessor, and it was allowing additional material to enter the flare system. To end this release, the safety valve was isolated. The total HRVOC release from these two events was greater than the 100 lb RQ. The plant said they would review and/or update procedures for swapping pumps and review this incident with unit operations personnel.	107.0 pounds
135181 2011-11-09	compressor KC-01	Cause: A combination release occurred due to a cracked pipe in the thermo well of the ethylene production unit. Followup: Yes Notes: An engineered clamp is being fabricated and will be installed to isolate the leak. Estimated 72 hours to install clamp and secure leak. Individually this event did not exceed the RQ for HRVOC, but in combination with another incident (#11-07037) the RQ for HRVOC was exceeded on Friday, November 11. Approximately 122 pounds of HRVOC's were released. On November 11, 2011 at approximately 13:51 Derek Reese stated the ongoing release subsided to 4.25 lbs/hr and was now below RQ. (still ongoing on report date 11/16/11) Area monitoring and LDEQ monitoring on the fenceline (including grab sample) did not detect anything. LDEQ did pick up .25ppb of Benzene. A total of 108 pounds per day of charge gas is being released as a result of this event. Cumulative emissions which include the total emissions from the incident and complete response, will be included in the follow-up report.	122.0 pounds
135136 2011-11-05	Control valve	Cause: Control valve malfunctioned releasing several materials into the air. Released to the flare after control valve malfunctioned. Followup: No Notes: No reportable quantities were exceeded.	16.0 pounds
155154 2014-04-09	Exchanger	Cause: ExxonMobil Chemical Co had an exchanger leak with potential RQ exceedances for Propylene and HRVOCs. Due to prompt incident response to mitigate the event duration, no reportable quantities were exceeded. Approximately 0.06 lbs of propylene were released as a result of this event. Followup: No Notes: The reports also mention incident 14-01580 that occurred a day prior to this incident. According to initial reports, emissions from these two events exceeded the reportable quantities. The report fails to mention the amount released from incident 14-01580. There is also no mention of the end time for this accident. There is also no mention of what caused the exchanger leak.