US Dow performs maintenance on Texas PE unit

24 February 2012 21:46  [Source: ICIS news]

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HOUSTON (ICIS)--Dow Chemical performed maintenance to clear residual material from a reactor at a polyethylene (PE) unit in Freeport, Texas, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The procedure, performed on Friday afternoon, involved pressuring up the reactor with low pressure gas and opening a vent stack to clear carbon from the reactor, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A market participant said the maintenance procedure was likely in response to a brief outage earlier in the week. The source said the unit is probably back up and running, and that there was no significant impact to production.

However, earlier on Friday, Dow reported a rupture disc failure on the same unit, according to a separate TCEQ filing.

Following that incident, the plant was shut down after a preliminary investigation indicated an overpressure of the high pressure separator, according to the filing.

Dow has two low density polyethylene (LDPE) units at its Freeport chemical complex with a combined capacity of 202,000 tonnes/year, as well as a 255,000 tonne/year capacity linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit, according to ICIS plants and projects.

By: Michelle Klump
+1 713 525 2653

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