Explosion at ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance

Group-2
Introduction

The incident took place on February 18, 2015 where it was reported that 4 worker got serious
injuries but the incident took place only because of violating safety regulation. In this part of
write up we will try to give a brief idea about the designed process and factors that lead to
accident.

The explosion took place on FCC (Fluidised catalytic cracking) unit of refinery. In this unit
there were 2 sections first one is air side and other was hydrocarbon side. These two sections
were connected with the help of 2 valves.

Fig 1: - Process flow diagram

Fluidised Catalytic Cracking

The FCC is a technique used to crack heavy high molecular weight hydrocarbons into lighter
low molecular weight hydrocarbons with the help of suitable catalyst. Here, Regenerator is
used to combust coke layer formed on catalyst particles during FCC process. From valve 1
catalyst enters the FCC reactor and from valve 2 get back to regenerator.
Lighter hydrocarbon then sent to distillation column for their separation into various product
range. To regenerate catalyst particle, we have several additional units along with regenerator
one of them is ‘Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP)’.

The ESP creates charge and sparks to separate catalyst particles from impurities but also a
source of ignition that can cause very hazardous accidents.

Conclusion

The flow of hydrocarbon on air side of FCC unit is not permissible. In any case when plant is
shut down the FCC reactor should get filled by high pressure steam automatically. This will
not allow the flow of hydrocarbons from distillation column to air side of FCC unit. In this
kind of situation where company needs to shut FCC unit then valve 1 and 2 also gets close, to
prevent flow of steam or hydrocarbon into air side of unit. Along with two valves there is
catalyst filled in connecting pipes between regenerator and FCC column. This is also to
improve safety precaution to avoid any unwanted incidents.