Iran Petrochemical Plant Explosion Kills Four

photo : http://www.tradearabia.com/

According to reports, 4 workers were killed as a result of an explosion at the NPC plant in the Gulf island of Kharg. The explosion occuured on Saturday evening.

According to the provincial governor 'An explosion from a gas leak occurred on Saturday evening around 7pm, but it was extinguished at 12am by firefighters'.

Despite the impact of sanctions, Iran has a good record on safety. A quick look at the programme for the 2011 International Conference on HSE, shows the high level of focus on safety issues, including a number of process safety topics. As a state-run organisation, NPC has invested heavily in new plants but has maintained a good safety record. It is hoped that the investigation rapidly identifies and addresses the root cause of this particular incident.

Ineos Bio Waste to Ethanol Projects Gather Momentum

photo : http://www.m13.ca/

The Ineos Bio waste to ethanol process is attracting a great deal of attention currently.

Back in December, this blog reported that Ineos Bio, together with its partner New Planet Energy, had been selected for a $50M grant for its advanced bioenergy facility in Florida, USA. The facility to use INEOS Bio’s advanced BioEnergy technology to produce bioethanol and power from a range of feedstocks, including forestry waste, agricultural waste, sustainable energy crops, construction waste and municipal solid waste.

More recently, in June this year, it was announced that INEOS Bio had received an offer of a £7.3m grant towards £52m construction costs for the first commercial plant in Europe using its advanced BioEnergy Process Technology. According to Ineos Bio, 'The plant, to be located at the INEOS Seal Sands site in the Tees Valley, is designed to produce 24,000 tonnes per year (30 million litres) of carbon-neutral road transport fuel and generate more than 3MW of clean electricity for export from over 100,000 tonnes per year of biodegradable household and commercial waste. This would provide the biofuel requirement of around 250,000 vehicles per year running on E10* and the electricity needs of 6000 households.'

The process takes domestic waste, converts it into gases and then uses an anaerobic fermentation step to convert the gases into bio-ethanol. My understanding is that the process is highly efficient and has relatively low costs, meaning that this type of facility could be installed in any large population centre and provide an effective means of energy production, whilst eliminating costly landfill or waste incineration.

The Florida facility is due on-line in 2011. If this project proves to be successful, which I fully expect to be the case, one can foresee many other such projects being implemented around the world.

ACC Calls For End of Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling

photo : www.offshore-technology.com

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has called for a solution to be found to end the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ACC President and CEO, Cal Dooley, made these remarks in The Hill's Congress Blog. Dooley noted the potential harm to US Manufacturing, including chemicals manufacturing, of policies that will reduce the availability and increase the price of energy in the future.

Whilst the moratorium is understandable, as a reaction to events in the Gulf of Mexico, the issue needs to be considered in its wider context. Whilst this blog has long argued for a policy of sustainability and energy efficiency, the world is still highly dependent on fossil fuels and we are very far away from having an energy future based entirely on renewables.

Peak Oil is a major subject by itself, but all experts agree that we are well past the peak of oil discovery and that we are approaching, in the short-to-medium term, the peak of oil production. This means that oil and gas production from unconventional sources, such as shale gas, is increasingly important and we must also continue to find and safely and efficiently produce oil and gas from all conventional sources.

This does not mean that we should take unnecessary risks in doing so but instead should find engineered solutions to our issues and operate under a regime of thorough oversight and regulation. The Gulf of Mexico incident was a tragedy and steps must be taken to prevent this from happening in the future but we cannot afford to call a halt to deepwater production at this time.

Reliance Industries Joins Shale Gas Rush

photo : energy.alberta.ca

A regular theme on this blog has been the development of the shale gas industry. Now Indian major, Reliance Industries, has joined the party, investing a total of $1.36billion to acquire and develop a share in Texan shale gas assets.


Reliance has paid Pioneer Natural Resources some $236M for a 45% stake in the Eagle Ford shale assets in southern Texas for $236M and will further invest $1.052B to develop the fields over the next four years.

Back in April, Reliance invested $1.7B to create a venture with Atlas Energy, a deal which gave Reliance a 40% in the Marcellus shale fields in the USA.

This move again shows the growing importance of unconventional oil and gas to the IOCs and the petrochemical majors such as Reliance. With discoveries of conventional oil and gas reserves having peaked some time ago and with control firmly in the hands of the National Oil Companies, we can expect more and more activity in the development of unconventional resources. This will also increasingly shape the future of petrochemicals, now that the peak of investment in crackers based on conventional sources of feedstock appears to have passed.

CSB to Investigate Deepwater Horizon Incident

photo :Oilonline.com

I'm very pleased to hear that the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has been invited to investigate the causes of the explosion on the Transocean/BP oil rig, which occurred on 20th April.

The CSB takes a very holistic approach to its investigations, looking at technical factors but very importantly, the organisational, cultural and human factors which may have contributed to such an incident.

An additional benefit of a CSB investigation is the fact that CSB is capable of producing excellent material to share all of the learnings with the wider community. The video  'anatomy of a disaster' about Texas City is a must see for chemical industry professionals.

In a letter to Senator Henry Waxman, the CSB Chairman, John Bresland, has agreed that the investigation will look for similarities with the BP Texas City explosion but stressed the importance that the investigation be carried out without preconceptions and that all of the underlying causes and factors are thoroughly examined.

This point is essential. Politicians and some media outlets have been very quick to condemn BP as 'guilty'. Some of the accusations may prove to be valid but this can only be fairly determined with a thorough and proper investigation of all of the issues and all of the parties involved.

UK Emissions Data Shows Impact of Recession

 photo : DECC

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has released provisional 2009 figures for UK greenhouse gas emissions.

At a first glance, the figures appear to tell a positive story, with the UK set to meet its pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 20% from 1990 levels in 2010. However on closer inspection, it can be seen that emissions have been more or less steady since 1995 and the big drop occurred in 2009 as a result of the global recession and a significant drop in manufacturing output. It is likely, therefore, that similar reductions have occurred throughout Europe and North America.

From a social and economic perspective, a reduction in output is counterproductive. If manufacturing capacity is lost in Europe and North America, it is unlikely to be replaced at the same location.

It is absolutely right to focus on reducing emissions but innovation and good engineering practice is the way to achieve this. The 2009 figures create a positive illusion but the reality is that we have a long way to go to achieve sustainable emissions reductions.

Bhopal Arrests - Too Little and Too Late

photo : ibtimes.com

Much  press coverage this week about the sentences given to former Union Carbide empoyees in relation to the Bhopal disaster which occurred on 3rd December 1984, when the plant released 42 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposing more than 500,000 people to toxic gases.

Rightly, in this blog's view, the Indian Press and much of the world's press have expressed their disgust at the lenient sentences and the fact that nothing was done to bring the US based former Union Carbide head, Warren Anderson, to justice.

Bhopal was an incident that was simply waiting to happen. There were very many 'obvious' issues which could and should have been addressed by a company with the experience, expertise and capability of Union Carbide

• Capital expenditure had been minimised  
• General cost cutting had led to poor working conditions and an inadequate inspection regime
• Safety rules were inadequate and operators were instructed to ignore them
• Training was cut back drastically to cut costs
• Workers were forced to use manuals in English, even though very few could understand the language
• Some safety features had been dismantled or disabled
• Safety systems were inadequately designed
• Supervision was reduced to save cost
• Poor morale led to an exodus of skilled personnel to better and safer jobs

Chemical manufacturers have a duty-of-care to employees and the general public. Chemical industry professionals receive years of training in order to fulfill this duty. For managers with the right training and experience, issues such as those listed above are easy to identify and address. Managers, at all levels and in any chemical manufacturing company, should be capable of spotting and addressing such major issues. If this isn't they case, they should not be in the role.