Motiva Refinery

United States Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigation Board. Lindings and Recommendations of Motiva Refinery Sulfuric Acid Tank Larm Disaster, Aug 28, 2002. 

Location Motiva Refinery, Port Arthur, Texas... 

Petroleum coke slurry Petroleum coke from the Motiva refinery ean be used to prepare slurries that meet the solids concentration, pumpability, and other eharacteristies required for Texaeo proprietary gasification process. 

Texaco decided not to proceed with Phase III work because the Motiva refinery site at Port Arthur, Texas became unavailable after the merger of Texaco and Chevron. 

About 5 percent of the trayed towers have old style bubble-cap trays. Dirt and coke tends to accumulate under the cap. This cannot be seen unless the cap is removed. Coke underneath the bubble will restrict the vapor flow, increase vapor AP and promote downcomer backup and flooding, it only takes a moment to unscrew a bubble-cap using a crescent wrench. The maintenance folks will usually clean the deck, but not remove the caps. Liz injured herself crawling through a manway helping me discover this problem at the Motiva Refinery visbreaker fractionator in Convent, Louisiana. This tower flooded on... 

News Link Environmental. 2008. Motiva Enterprises settles suit resulting from explosion at Delaware City refinery, www.caprep.com/0905038.htm (accessed April 27, 2008). 

Motiva Enterprises (called Star Enterprise before Shell s purchase of part of it in 1998) is a joint venture of Texaco, Shell, and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. Its operations include a refinery, located near Delaware City, Delaware, which has had difficulties in meeting environmental standards over the years. (The following dates refer to items from the Wilmington Delaware News Journal, except as referenced otherwise.)... 

U.S. Chemical and Hazards Investigation Board, Report No.2001-05-I-DE - refinery incident Motiva Enterprises EEC, Delaware City refinery. Delaware City, Delaware. July 17, 2001 Oct. 2002. p. 67. 

During maintenance to a catwalk on a summer afternoon, a Motiva Enterprises LLC refinery on the Delaware River had a short-lived lire within a sulfuric acid tank on July 17, 2001. The acid tank ruptured and a contractor died. Adjacent sulfurie aeid tanks were damaged. The refinery is about 10 miles south of Wilmington. The refinery had approximately 650 employees and 300 contractors on-site when the fire occurred [7,8]. 

On the afternoon of July 17, 2001, a sulfuric acid tank caught fire and ruptured at the Motiva Enterprises, LLC Delaware City Refinery. Adjacent sulfuric acid tanks were damaged, and approximately one million gallons of acid escaped the secondary containment through an open valve. Acid was released to the surrounding area, entered into the sewer system, and then passed through Motiva s wastewater treatment system into the Delaware River. 

The Motiva Enterprises Delaware City Refinery began operation in 1956 as the Tidewater Oil Comparer and changed owners over the years. The refinery was described as a 140,000 bbl/day refinery, which contained a wide range of processing units including sulfuric acid alkylation unit [7],... 

An October 16, 1995, incident at a Pennzoil refinery in Rouseville, Pennsylvania, is strikingly similar to the Motiva incident (US-EPA,1998). Welding was being conducted near a wastewater tank that contained a layer of flammable liquid. 

The U.S. CSB gathered a series of sad preventable case histories occurring in facilities in Florida, Delaware, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Ohio as a backdrop to the 14 min safety video entitled Dangers of Hot Work. The video clearly warns of the hazards of welding and other hot work activities in and around storage tanks containing flammable materials. And one of those case histories is the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Delaware City, Delaware incident that was just discussed. 

US Chemical Safely and Hazard Investigation Board. Investigation Report No. 2001-05-1-DE - Refinery Incident Motiva Enterprises LLC, Delaware City Refinery, Delaware City, Delaware July 17,2001. Report issued October 2002. 

Not very far from my home in Louisiana, Shell Oil (now Motiva) operates a large refinery. In 1988, an explosion occurred in this plant. A cloud of propane vapor from the overhead of a depropanizer detonated with tremendous force. The resulting shock wave blew a 14-ft-diameter tower off its foundation. The 100-ft-high tower landed on the control room. All six operators therein were killed. 

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