Blowdown stack

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A blowdown stack is a chimney or vertical stack that is used to vent the pressure of components of a chemical, refinery or other process if there is a process problem or emergency. A blowdown stack can be used to complement a flare stack or as an alternative. The purpose is to prevent 'loss of containment' of volatile liquids and gases.

Chimney structure that provides ventilation for exhausting the hot or toxic flue gases, aerosols and smokes produced by a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace inside a building to the outside atmosphere

A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, or chimney effect. The space inside a chimney is called the flue. Chimneys are adjacent to large industrial refineries, fossil fuel combustion facilities or part of buildings, steam locomotives and ships.

The failure of the blowdown stack to contain hydrocarbons vented from a raffinate splitter led to the catastrophic Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005. [1]

Hydrocarbon organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups called hydrocarbyls. Because carbon has 4 electrons in its outermost shell carbon has exactly four bonds to make, and is only stable if all 4 of these bonds are used.

In chemical separation terminology, the raffinate is a product which has had a component or components removed. The product having the removed materials is referred to as the extract. For example, in solvent extraction, the raffinate is the liquid stream which remains after solutes from the original liquid are removed through contact with an immiscible liquid. In metallurgy, raffinating refers to a process in which impurities are removed from liquid material.

Texas City Refinery explosion 2005 deadly refinery plant accident

The Texas City Refinery explosion occurred on March 23, 2005, when a hydrocarbon vapor cloud was ignited and violently exploded at the ISOM isomerization process unit at BP's Texas City refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers, injuring 180 others and severely damaging the refinery. The Texas City Refinery was the second-largest oil refinery in the state, and the third-largest in the United States with an input capacity of 437,000 barrels (69,500 m3) per day as of January 1, 2000. BP acquired the Texas county refinery as part of its merger with Amoco in 1999.

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Amoco Corporation is a global chemical and oil company that was founded in 1889 around a refinery located in Whiting, Indiana, United States. Originally part of the Standard Oil Trust, it focused on gasoline for the new automobile market. In 1911, during the break up of the trust, it became an independent corporation. Incorporated in Indiana, it was headquartered in Chicago.

Texas City, Texas City in Texas, United States

Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas' Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing center. The population was 48,558 in 2017, making it the third-largest city in Galveston County, behind League City and Galveston. It is a part of the Houston metropolitan area. The city is notable as the site of a major explosion in 1947 that demolished the port and much of the city.

Oil refinery industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products

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Koch Industries, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Wichita, Kansas. Its subsidiaries are involved in the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, ranching, finance, commodities trading, and investing. Koch owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Molex, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals, Matador Cattle Company, and Guardian Industries. The firm employs 120,000 people in 60 countries, with about half of its business in the United States. The company is the largest landowner in the Athabasca oil sands.

Andeavor was a Fortune 100 and a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with 2017 annual revenues of $35 billion, and over 14,000 employees worldwide. Based on 2017 revenue, the company ranked No. 90 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Relief valve relief valve

A relief valve or pressure relief valve (PRV) is a type of safety valve used to control or limit the pressure in a system; pressure might otherwise build up and create a process upset, instrument or equipment failure, or fire. The pressure is relieved by allowing the pressurised fluid to flow from an auxiliary passage out of the system. The relief valve is designed or set to open at a predetermined set pressure to protect pressure vessels and other equipment from being subjected to pressures that exceed their design limits. When the set pressure is exceeded, the relief valve becomes the "path of least resistance" as the valve is forced open and a portion of the fluid is diverted through the auxiliary route. The diverted fluid is usually routed through a piping system known as a flare header or relief header to a central, elevated gas flare where it is usually burned and the resulting combustion gases are released to the atmosphere. As the fluid is diverted, the pressure inside the vessel will stop rising. Once it reaches the valve's reseating pressure, the valve will close. The blowdown is usually stated as a percentage of set pressure and refers to how much the pressure needs to drop before the valve reseats. The blowdown can vary from roughly 2–20%, and some valves have adjustable blowdowns.

Imperial Sugar

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Diesel engine runaway is a rare condition affecting diesel engines, in which the engine draws extra fuel from an unintended source and overspeeds at higher and higher RPM and producing up to 10 times the engine's rated output until destroyed by mechanical failure or bearing seizure through lack of lubrication.

Blowdown may refer to:

Grangemouth Refinery oil refinery complex located on the Firth of Forth in Grangemouth, Scotland

Grangemouth Refinery is a mature oil refinery complex located on the Firth of Forth in Grangemouth, Scotland. Currently operated by Petroineos, it is the only crude oil refinery in Scotland and currently one of six in the UK. It is reputedly the UK's second-oldest refinery, and it supplies refined products to customers in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland, as well as occasionally further afield.

BP British multinational oil and gas company

BP plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012 made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels, wind power and solar technology.

Chevron Richmond Refinery

The Chevron Richmond Refinery is a 2,900-acre (1,200 ha) petroleum refinery in Richmond, California, on San Francisco Bay. It is owned and operated by Chevron Corporation and employs more than 1,200 workers, making it the city's largest employer. The refinery processes approximately 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil a day in the manufacture of petroleum products and other chemicals. The refinery's primary products are motor gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel and lubricants.

On February 1, 2015, United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union announced that "more than 5,200 USW Oil Workers at 11 refineries in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas and Washington are on strike against the industry’s unfair labor practices". The list of charges alleged by NSW filed with the NLRB included: bad-faith bargaining over the companies’ refusal to negotiate over mandatory subjects, impeded bargaining for the companies’ undue delays in providing information, threatening workers if they join the ULP strike and others. As of March 3, 2015, about 6,550 workers were on strike at 15 plants, including 12 refineries with a fifth of U.S. capacity. It was the first time since 1982 that U.S. oil workers have walked off their jobs to protest working conditions. The National Oil Bargaining talks began in 1965 and are part of the U.S. oil industry's Pattern bargaining process.

References

  1. "BP agrees to pay record $50.6m fine for Texas explosion". BBC News. October 7, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2010.