nox related cold box incident - mko process...
TRANSCRIPT
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Making Safety Second Nature
NOX RELATED
COLD BOX
INCIDENT
Gregg Kiihne - BASF Corporation
Mary Kay O’Connor
Process Safety Symposium
October 27, 2010
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Making Safety Second Nature
Introduction
• Cold Box Overview
• What Happened?
• How did it Happen?
• Why did it Happen?
• Recommendations
• Questions?
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Making Safety Second Nature
BASF FINA
Petrochemicals Overview
• JV between BASF Corporation and TOTAL
PETROCHEM.
• Operational 2001 – Lummus Design
• Nameplate – 950 KTA Ethylene
• Naphtha based Cracker
• Located in Port Arthur, Texas
• Adjacent to TOTAL Port Arthur Refinery
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Making Safety Second Nature
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Making Safety Second Nature
Cold Box Layout
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Making Safety Second Nature
What Happened?
• Cold Section in Standby due to Hot Section Upset
• Cold Box Bottled-Up
• Liquid was Maintained in Cold Box Drums
• Shortly before 8:00 on Mar. 13, 2008 a loud “bang”
with white powder on the ground was reported
• Later determined a detonation occurred in the
coldest section of the Cold Box
• The detonation destroyed 4 ft of 6” process piping
and 2 ft of a 1” drain line
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Making Safety Second Nature
Vapor outlet
from Separator
Vapor inlet to
Cross
exchanger, E-
3009X, from
separator.
Liquid inlet to
Cross
exchanger, E-
3009X, from
separator
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Making Safety Second Nature
Fragments of the 1-inch SS
drain line
Note the long narrow
‘banana peel’ pattern
of the fragments,
characteristic of a
detonation.
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Making Safety Second Nature
How did it Happen?
• Butadiene
migrated from
front of Cold
Box to back
end due to
leaking JT
Valve.
• Likely caused by butadiene reacting with NOX
liquids in drain line on low pressure methane pass
Cold Box
Wall
#4 Feed
Drum
#5 Feed
Drum
Flow Valve
J-T ValveSeparator
Cross
Exchanger
To Raw H2
To LP CH4
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Making Safety Second Nature
• The leaking Joule-Thompson valve had two effects:
• Lower pressure caused
butadiene to carry over
from the 2nd stage drum
• Leakage drew heavier
material from front of
the chilling train to
coldest section where
NOX liquids can
accumulate
How did it Happen?
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Making Safety Second Nature
How did it Happen?
Cold Box
Wall
From
D-3004X /
E-3009X
D-3005x
FV-30051
TV-30051Separator
E-3009xTo Raw H2
To LP CH4
• Operations not aware of
drain line – not indicated
correctly on P&IDs
• Failure to drain cold
box drums during
standby operation
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Making Safety Second Nature
• HAZOP did not identify hazard of
leaking Joule-Thompson valves
• Procedures focused on
Temperature only, not Pressure /
Temperature Equilibrium
• No reliable means of preventing
butadiene carryover during
startup and shutdown
Why did it Happen?
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Making Safety Second Nature
Recommendations for
Cold Box Operators
Consider draining drums containing butadiene
when forward flow is lost
Identify critical pressure / temperature
relationships
Industry literature had focused on temperature
Develop procedures assuming NOX will always be
present
Review your HAZOPs based on any new
information provided by this incident
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Making Safety Second Nature
Recommendations for
the Rest of Us
Packaged Systems
• Know what you are getting
• Verify you get what you wanted
Process Safety Information
• Verify PSI prior to Start-Up (especially for Pkg Sys)
Full understanding of reaction hazards
Operating Procedures
• Ensure Key parameters are properly specified
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Making Safety Second Nature
Questions?