LA Bucket Brigade : Refinery Accident Database

About the Database

ExxonMobil Chemical Plant (286), Baton Rouge

Releases in 2007

LDEQ Accident Number Accident Date	Point Source/Release	Cause	Notes
100166 2007-10-12	Point Source(s): RLA-1 Process unit Pollutant(s): Ethylene - 0 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - 0	Cause of Problem: No Information Given	At time of report event was still ongoing. Potential RQ for Flammable vapor. Potential RQ for VOC. Potential for highly reactive VOC. Potential for RQ for the Ethylene for DEQ of 100 lbs. There was a fire, but they called the internal fire squad as a precaution. Amount of ethylene released is unknown.
99883 2007-10-01	Point Source(s): safety valves Pollutant(s): Benzene - 134 pounds Flammable Vapor - 13,413 pounds	Cause of Problem: Instrument Failure On October 1, 2007 at approximately 2:48 PM, the LOLA T-1 tower overpressured resulting in a hydrocarbon release to the atmosphere through three of the four safety valves on the overhead of the tower. The overpressure was caused by a faulty pressure reading on the tower pressure control system. The T-1 overhead pressure instrument had been reading erratically prior to the incident and was being evaluated. During this time, the overhead pressure control valve was operated in manual to maintain a specified tower pressure. Pressure began to increase in the tower, and firing of the tower's reboiler furnace, F-402, was automatically shutdown when the pressure reached 35 psig. Furnace firing was restarted and pressue continued to rise, reaching 38.55 psig, even though the controller was using the pressure control valve in an attempt to lower tower pressure. After control was reestablished, it was determined that three of the four tower safety valves had relieved.	The pressure control valve on the T-1 overhead circuit was fully opened to relieve the pressure in the tower. The pressure instrument is being evaluated by instrument technicians, but at the time of the report, no cause for the erratic behavior was found. An investigation is ongoing and the appropriate follow up actions will be completed to prevent recurrence.
98264 2007-07-31	Point Source(s): compressor Pollutant(s): Benzene - 20 pounds 1,3-Butadiene - 20 pounds	Cause of Problem: Process Upset A compressor tripped resulting in the emission of the gases to the air.	They have restarted the compressor.
98080 2007-07-23	Point Source(s): furnace Pollutant(s): Nitrogen Oxide - BRQ	Cause of Problem: Piping or Tubing ExxonMobil re-evaluated a leak that they had inside of a furnace. Tube inside of a furnace has a small leak, which is causing ethane to be released into a section of the furnace that is not designed for combustion.	The ethane was combusting and forming nitrogen oxide. The furnace is fairly large and shutting it down would cause flaring that would release thousands of pounds of nitrogen oxide. A strategy to repair the tube was to be developed. Nitrogen oxides were released at 16 lbs per day. Release is ongoing. Amount of release is unknown at this time.
97814 2007-07-12	Point Source(s): T2 Tower, flange Pollutant(s): Highly Reactive Volatile Organic Compounds - 16 pounds Xylene - 88 pounds	Cause of Problem: Seal or Gasket On Xylene Recover Unit a flange on control valve on T2 Tower had vibration, causing it to leak.	Xylene did not exceed its RQ but 16 lbs of HRVOC added to 88 lbs of Xylene exceeded RQ on HRVOC.
97283 2007-06-21	Point Source(s): Hatch on rail car Pollutant(s): Ammonia - 100 pounds	Cause of Problem: Seal or Gasket They are loading rail cars. There is a leaking hatch on a rail car.	They applied a water spray down wind. They are replacing the seal.
95548 2007-04-21	Point Source(s): Flare Pollutant(s): Butadiene - 1 pounds Nitrogen Oxide - 45 pounds Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - 102 pounds	Cause of Problem: Process Upset had a flare event associated with RTO3 upset.	May have exceeded RQ's.
95507 2007-04-20	Point Source(s): D furnace Pollutant(s): Nitrogen Oxide - 0	Cause of Problem: Equipment Failure ExxonMobil Chemical has a convection section leak on D furnace, on the PASS 5 section.	This is being reported as a precautionary measure. They released Nitrous Oxide at 12.5 lbs/day. The limit is 10 lbs/day. Exact amount of nitrous oxide released is unknown.
94916 2007-03-27	Point Source(s): Flare Pollutant(s): Nitrogen Oxide - 34 pounds Ethylene - 10 pounds Ethane - 1 pounds Carbon Monoxide - 1 pounds	Cause of Problem: Process Upset They had a failure on a control valve, causing a safety valve release to the flare. The failure was due to a system overpressure.	The flaring has stopped. The control valve is being repaired.
93999 2007-02-16	Point Source(s): Rich Stage Absorber Tower Pollutant(s): Propylene - 468 pounds Isopropyl alcohol - 892 pounds Sulfuric Acid - 1,436 pounds Water - 495 pounds Propane - 468 pounds	Cause of Problem: Equipment Failure While making routine rounds, an assistant operator on the Isopropyl Alcohol Unit discovered a leak on the sixth level of the Rich Stage Absorber Tower. The leak was caused by a failure of the thermowell assembly.	Personnel immediately began to isolate and shut down the tower. Elevated fire monitors were activated which sprayed water on the release to minimize emissions to the air. Feed was blocked out of the tower, the liquid drained to other process equipment, and the tower was depressured to the gas recovery system. The failed thermowell assembly was replaced. The failed thermowell assemblly was sent to an outside lab for metallurgical analysis to determine the cause of the failure.
93865 2007-02-09	Point Source(s): gasket on flange on exchanger Pollutant(s): Butene - 0	Cause of Problem: Seal or Gasket A leaking gasket on a flange on an exchanger is releasing butene	At time of report: They have a potential to exceed the RQ of 1000 pounds of flammable gas in the next 12 to 14 hours. Delay in notification because they hadn't exceeded RQ. They had made an attempt to repair the leak, which failed. They are getting ready to make another attempt. Amount of Butene released is unknown.
93846 2007-02-08	Point Source(s): Flare Pollutant(s): Nitrogen Oxide - 12 pounds	Cause of Problem: Instrument Failure ExxonMobil had a pump that was vented to the flare due to a control system command. Unknown what caused the control system to vent the pump to the flare. Nitrogen oxide was released from the flare	Delay in notification because there was some confusion on ExxonMobil's part about the RQ. There have been some recent changes on the RQ for Nox for DEQ, and ExxonMobil was unsure if LSP had followed suit.
93497 2007-01-25	Point Source(s): Tower 101 Pollutant(s): Benzene - 160 pounds Toluene - 20 pounds	Cause of Problem: Seal or Gasket Release was from the safety on Tower T101. It blew to drum D 106. That drum has a water seal on it that broke causing the vapors to release.	Exxon called SPOC to inform that they reached RQ for Benzene and Toluene was in the stream. Based on their data, they had no approached the flammable vapor RQ of 1000 lbs. The immediate area by the release had been evacuted internally. Caller stated at 4:39 pm an announcement of All Clear for evacuation and shelter in place was made. Air monitoring had started inside and was working towards perimeter. Airmatics is the name of the porcess unit. Just SPOC report.
93345 2007-01-16	Point Source(s): Exchanger Pollutant(s): 1,3-Butadiene - 12 pounds	Cause of Problem: No Information Given	SPOC report intital release says that the rate of release of 1,3-Butadiene had exceeded the RQ during the 24 hour period. Release from exchanger first calculated on 1/16/17 to be around 3 lbs per day. Routine sampling and measuments indicated that the rate of release was then around 11.5 lbs/day. Estimated to continue for at least a day or two. Just SPOC report. Raining at the time of the incident.
No LDEQ Number Available 2007-01-01	Point Source(s): No information given. Pollutant(s): No Information Given - BRQ	Cause of Problem: No Information Given	Leak occurred at plant. No RQs were exceeded.