Braskem Texas PP unit needs unplanned maintenance for 16-22 days

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Braskem America’s polypropylene (PP) plant in Texas experienced an unplanned outage on Friday because of an exchanger leak that will require maintenance of 16-22 days, according to a state filing.

Braskem said the leak stemmed from a Dow Chemical equipment failure and required immediate corrective action to minimise emissions.

The 320,000 tonne/year Oyster Creek PP unit in Freeport operates with the Dow Chemical Light Hydrocarbon 8 plant that receives an unreacted propylene stream from the PP facility, according to the filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Dow will shut down the equipment processing this stream to repair the leaking exchanger and the stream will be routed to an air control device to prevent excess emissions to the atmosphere.

Braskem bought the plant in 2011 from Dow, along with another Texas plant and two in Germany.