Fire Affects Two Steam Cracker Units in Europe Owned by BASF

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Giant chemical producer BASF SE (OTC:BASFY) (Ludwigshafen, Germany) has been forced to shut down two of its steam cracker units in Europe, one of them in the company's plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and the other in Ludwigshafen, Germany, due to two fires which affected the normal operations of the facilities.

On December 20, 2009, a small fire took place in the 1.764 billion-pound-per-year Ethylene Unit at the Antwerp chemical complex, which is near the border with The Netherlands. The unit was taken offline after the situation was under control, and maintenance was performed. At the moment, the unit is in its restart process and authorities expect to have it back online January 5. The other units at the site were affected by the incident due to lack of feedstock, and they are to resume operations with the cracker.

The Ludwigshafen Chemical Complex houses two ethylene units: the Steam Cracker No.1 has a 670 million-pound-per-year production capacity and the Cracker No. 2, which produces 1.61 billion pounds per year. Early in the morning of December 23, a fire broke out in the smaller cracker and the unit had to be taken offline, although no one was injured. Safety mechanisms were activated and the fire was extinguished soon after it had started. Maintenance work is being performed on the damaged equipment, and plant authorities expect to have the unit back online by mid-January. The remaining units at the complex were not affected, and they are operating without inconveniences. At the moment, engineering and major turnaround teams at the Ludwigshafen Complex continue scheduling the next major turnaround for the Ethylene No. 2 unit which is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2011.

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