14 December 2006
China: Explosion at Maleic Anhydride Plant
An explosion occurred on 11 December in northwest China at the Auxiliary Plant of Lanzhou Refinery & Chemical Industrial, part of PetroChina, killing three people.
The explosion affected the company's maleic anhydride unit's water cooling tank and caused spillage of butane into the environment. Because of government safety checks being carried out, the plant is expected to be out of production for one to two months, company sources confirmed.
The company is required to perform these checks according to government regulations.
The company has two units equipped to make maleic anhydride at the site, one with a 10 ktpa capacity based on benzene feedstock and one based on butane for 20 ktpa. The latter was started up in July this year but has not reached commercial output quality or rates as yet. Company sources said output of maleic anhydride from the new unit totalled around 200 tons before the explosion.
PetroChina's Jilin Petrochemical also suffered a major explosion in November 2005.
More in-depth coverage of the maleic anhydride market in China will appear in the Maleic Anhydride Newsletter on 10 January 2007.
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