Fire, explosion hit Sasol’s Louisiana petchem complex

An explosion and subsequent fire occurred on Jan. 13 at the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit of Sasol Ltd.’s Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), an integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives complex under progressive commissioning since 2019 in Westlake, La., near Lake Charles (OGJ Online, Aug. 30, 2019; Feb. 14, 2019).

Sasol has extinguished the fire, with all employees and contractors safe and accounted for, the operator said on Jan. 14.

The new LDPE unit—which had not yet achieved beneficial operation (BO) as planned for in December 2019—was in the final stages of commissioning and start-up when the incident occurred, Sasol said.

The LDPE unit has been shut down, and an investigation is now under way to determine the cause of the incident, the extent of the damage, and resulting impact on the LDPE unit's BO schedule.

All other Lake Charles units and previously commissioned LCCP units, including the ethane cracker, ethylene glycol-ethylene oxide, and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) units, are unaffected and operating to plan, according to the operator.

The 1.5 million-tonne/year ethane cracker recently achieved nameplate capacity following a successful replacement of the acetylene reactor catalyst in the plant in late 2019 (OGJ Online, Dec. 17, 2019).

Sasol said the remaining three downstream units under construction to complete the integrated LCCP sit—including the Ziegler alcohols and alumina unit, alcohol ethoxylates unit, and Guerbet alcohols unit—are were unaffected by the incident and remain within cost and and on schedule.

In December, Sasol said it expected the timeline for LCCP’s remaining three units to achieve BO to be as follows:

• Zeigler alcohols unit: January 2020.
• Guerbet alcohols unit: March 2020.
• Ethoxylation unit: January 2020.