'Regret' over flaring

Andrew Cowie • Published 10 Dec 2009 10:34 0 Comments

The heavy flaring which lasted almost two days at the Fife Ethylene Plant at Mossmorran in the early autumn was caused by an unusual sequence of situations.

Cowdenbeath Area Committee heard last Wednesday that the flaring, which lasted for 42 hours, was greatly regretted by the plant's owners Exxon/Mobil.

The information on the incident came in a presentation made by the Mossmorran and Braefoot Bay Independent Air Quality Monitoring Review Group.

Chairman of the Group, Professor Wilson Sibbet, told the meeting that flaring was an integral safety feature of the process at the FEP as it was not possible to switch off the supply of ethane from North Sea installations to the 24 year-old plant.

He added, "The flares are specifically designed to dispose of large quantities of hydrocarbons by burning them to produce carbon dioxide, water vapour and a very small quantity of unburned hydrocarbons.

"The height and design of the elevated flare ensures that the unburned hydrocarbons are dispersed in the atmosphere at harmless concentrations."

Plant manager Daniel O'Connell told councillors that on 22nd September a fault developed in the system and a shut down had to take place.

He added, "The safety system worked excellently in that the flare went into action to burn off the gas but we then noticed that the flame was very black indeed.

"We try to avoid this by use of steam injection into the top of the flare but on 22nd September we suffered a boiler breakdown which led to a lower than required pressure of steam.

"This led to the heavy black smoke which emanated from the stack in the early stages of the flaring process and I must say that what was coming from the stack was as black as I had seen in 30 years working in the business.

"However, we were able to restore the steam supply in a relatively short time and the flame became smokeless.

"It, however, took many hours of work to repair the original fault and in total we had to flare for 42 hours and burn 2616 tonnes of supply. This was regretable and we apologise to our neighbours."

Mr O'Connell added that the September incident had tarnished what had been a good year for the plant as regards flaring.

He went on, "Flaring is something we always try to avoid for it costs a considerable amount of money to burn away feedstock and this year has seen a reduction in flare activity to seven days in total.

"Obviously we would like to get this down to zero and it is something we will continue to work on but the plant has a solid long time future with the current intention being that it will continue to operate into the 2020s.

"It is Exxon/Mobil's second most reliable steam cracker in the world and its record is on an improving curve with upwards of £90m. spent on maintenance and new kit."

SEPA'S Michelle Hickson said that she was called out that day and it was noticed how black the smoke was coming from the stack, something which should not happen.

She added, "We have sent a letter of warning to Exxon/Mobil about the occurrences of that day in September.

"However, there was no negligence but it is important that this does not happen again."

Professor Sibbet concluded by saying that over the years studies comprising community air monitoring, stack monitoring and air quality monitoring have concluded that during normal operations and during planned flaring there were no significant effects on local air quality and no adverse effects on local health.

Committee chairman Councillor Willie Clarke said that the explanation and assurances from Mr O'Connell were to be welcomed as flaring always caused concern in local communities.

Fellow Lochs councillor Alex Rowley said that one of his concerns was the age of the plant and he welcomed the assurances on the maintenance programmes.

Mr Clarke concluded by stating that he hoped that the presentation was the start of a new relationship with the companies at Mossmorran.

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