BASF Expects Major Outages After Fatal Explosion at German Chemical Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Many of the facilities at the world's largest chemical complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany remain offline after a fatal explosion on Monday with the prospect of prolonged outages expected.

The fires claimed the lives of two firefighters at the headquarters of BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany), the world's largest chemical producer, and has resulted in much of the huge complex being shut down for the last couple of days. Many others were injured, some seriously, while one other remains missing. As a safety precaution, the company said it had shut down 14 production facilities at the plant while the two steam crackers at the heart of the plant were taken offline. The crackers have a combined capacity for about 620,000 metric tons per year of ethylene.

The number of production facilities shut down or running at reduced capacity at the plant now numbers 20, and the company stated: "As the raw material supply is still interrupted, the steam crackers remain shut down. Around 20 other plants are either shutdown or only partially running."

Speaking at a press conference today, BASF personnel manager Margret Suckale admitted that the plant faces major outages. "This is a major challenge for our manufacturing and logistics. We also need to find viable solutions with our customers now."

The explosion occurred during work on a supply pipeline that delivers flammable liquids and liquefied gas to a tank at the harbour. The pipelines that burned transported both ethylene and propylene product, BASF confirmed. Both are important basic materials for chemicals manufacture. Ethylene is an important natural plant hormone used for fruit ripening in agriculture and is the key component in the creation of polyethylene, a widely used plastic. Propylene, which is created during the refining of gasoline or by 'cracking,' is widely used as a fuel gas in the chemical sector and can also be used to create a variety of solvents and plastics.

Manager of the Ludwigshafen plant, Uwe Liebelt, said: "We are deeply saddened that employees have died and several have been injured. Our deepest sympathy lies with the affected people and their families."

Authorities ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack, and the fires were eventually extinguished this morning. Columns of toxic smoke rose high over the plant yesterday and authorities called for people in the nearby towns to stay indoors as a precaution.

"The olefin markets are relatively well placed to deal with the outage, but for a number of derivative sectors a prolonged outage could cause a significant supply issue," said Matthew Thoelke, senior director/olefins and derivatives, EMEA at IHS Chemical, speaking to Chemical Week. "There could be a long-term logistics issue, and it will take some time to determine the full impact."

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