More and more attention has been paid to the safety of Dow’s U.S. factory explosion device operation

Comprehensive reports from multiple foreign media, at 9:30pm local time on July 14th Left and right, a series of explosions at Dow Chemical’s Plaquemine plant in Iberville Parish (WAFB), along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, USA, sparked local panic.

It is reported that the explosion occurred in the Ethylene Glycol 2 Unit #, which is used to produce and process ethylene oxide, a flammable and explosive chemical.

According to the data, Dow has four factories in Louisiana, which are: Plaquemine, Grand Bayou, Hahnville and Greensburg, these four plants produce more than 100 basic and specialty chemicals sold worldwide.

The explosion also aroused the attention of people in the polyurethane market. Dow is the world’s largest propylene oxide and Dow, a polyether producer, has a total capacity of 1.055 million tons of cyclopropylene in the United States. According to data, Dow has a 330,000-ton propylene oxide production plant in Louisiana, where the explosion occurred. In addition, Dow has several cyclopropylene, polyether and MDI production plants in Texas, the United States. The total production capacity of these polyurethane raw materials of Dow in the United States has reached 2.045 million tons per year. According to the latest news, the explosion has no impact on Dow’s polyurethane production facilities in the United States.

Although no polyurethane production equipment was affected this time, in recent years, local American Some PU production devices, either due to technical failures caused by the old state of the device itself, or due to factors such as unstable supply of upstream raw materials, sudden bad weather and other factors, have caused problems in the operation and supply of the device to be unstable from time to time, which is becoming more and more serious. The development is valued by the relevant production enterprises. For example, inIn May this year, according to relevant personnel, Dow Chemical plans to Closed its propylene oxide (PO) plant in Freeport, Texas. The unit is nearing the end of its useful life and the decision to close the unit is part of Dow’s efforts to optimize its cost and supply situation. The PO plant will continue to operate until the end of 2025, while the downstream polyether polyol plant will continue to operate after the closure of the PO plant. Currently, the PO plant in Freeport provides raw materials for the polyol plant.