Posted on 08/29/2017 7:24:54 PM PDT by mulder1
From Arkema at 5:55 EST:
“Our Crosby facility makes organic peroxides, a family of compounds that are used in everything from making pharmaceuticals to construction materials. But organic peroxides may burn if not stored and handled under the right conditions. At Crosby, we prepared for what we recognized could be a worst case scenario. We had redundant contingency plans in place. Right now, we have an unprecedented 6 feet of water at the plant. We have lost primary power and two sources of emergency backup power. As a result, we have lost critical refrigeration of the materials on site that could now explode and cause a subsequent intense fire. The high water and lack of power leave us with no way to prevent it. We have evacuated our personnel for their own safety. The federal, state and local authorities were contacted a few days ago, and we are working very closely with them to manage this matter. They have ordered the surrounding community to be evacuated, too. ”
They’ve ordered evacuations within a 1.5 mile radius of the plant. Sounds like they’re just waiting for the fireworks to begin. “The high water and lack of power leave us with no way to prevent it.”
Heres 2 gallons of Organic Peroxide catalyst allowed to warm up past the spontaneous exothermic reaction stage.
This stuff is commonly used to ‘kick off’ unsaturated polymer resin with Styrene monomer thats used in the production of fiberglass products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98jOeCr06Xs
I used to be a lab tech for a F.G. company. ...left on good terms i should add. but at one time we did have a fire.
They make organic peroxides and it just went boom. My dry ice idea would have worked. Toss the blocks in the peroxide. Hopefully not Methyl ethyl ketone based because that is a nasty carcinogen.
Let me tell you about my from the hip chemistry. I was 23. Trading physical commodities. I had 2000 tons of Mexican safflower oil on contract with Unilever. Mexican fractionation of oil extraction solvents is sloppy at best. My origin docs showed 2 PPM benzine (another nastycarcinogen) in the origin load. I shat my pants and then thought. Had the origin surveyors tank the shipping analysis. Had the ship heat the tank to 180F and bubble nitrogen through it on the 2 week voyage. At destination solvents, not just benzine were undetectable at a PPB level. The oil had not oxidized either. Unilever loved it. Best quality oil they had seen. Had slept with the survey manager. Have not slept with anyone at the chem plant unfortunately.
A few weeks later some boob on a small tanker threw the wrong valve on a small tanker out of NOLA heading to Jamaica. Dumped a bunch of ethanol into a load of palm oil. Guess what I knew. Bought it for pennies on the dollar and came out rather well after my treatment.
Oh Ba Jesus... 3 frickin box trucks lost cooling out of a total of 9.
All the naysayers can KMA.
http://dryiceideas.com/products/
See #24 ya bunch of jabronies
jabronie
juh broh nee
–noun
someone who is about to get owned.
-adjective
used to describe a person or action lacking judgment or sense.
I’m a rocket scientist so I’m questioning why they didn’t have relief valves on their cryogen tanks? We certainly do on all of the rockets I’m familiar with.
He he he. Those Jabronies are clueless. Scroll up a few posts. It was end product organic peroxides in small containers in 9 box trucks. 3 Lost cooling. It is ridiculous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu_1EiNMMX0
I wondered that also.
Of course, Organic Peroxides “DON’T PLAY NICE”. It might be that the risk of venting was viewed as greater than the risk of explosion. Things like that are a nightmare for hazard control, and playing the “Oh Crap” game sometimes leads management to say “That will never happen! Go back to your hole and drink more coffee.”
As a process guy, I keep asking myself why people install emergency generators below grade. I am a very paranoid soul, and have had more than one “Oh Crap” moment to make sure the emergency power is properly secured.
Nothing quite like watching a potential runaway reaction and hoping the back up power is able to open the cooling lines to convince you that while it may be expensive, planning for every event is great insurance.
Fox is reporting an explosion there
Similar “oh shit” at Fukushima. I was scratching my head after I saw how easily that disaster could have been averted.
I have worked with Japanese before. I totally understand how that happened.
A lot of the culture is about conflict avoidance. The cost of building back up systems above the water line is high, and maybe the BOSS doesn’t want it. So you don’t mention it.
One of former companies was Japanese owned. I was the barbarian in the room who would bring up such issues, and since I was a round eyed American no one lost face for me doing so. Privately, many in the company thanked me later for doing so. One time every last manager in the room came to and thanked me. They were all afraid of bringing up something unpleasant in front of the group. I was not.
They called me various Japanese slurs for non Japanese people. I sent them a link to the old WWII Bugs Bunny cartoon, and reminded them that when my people get mad, we break EVERYTHING in our way.
Good times.
Whaaaat??? Crickets? I was right.
You were right about crickets?
Freepers have such wonderful vocabularies. I haven't heard that term in ages.
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