Cracker plant gets ready for showtime
Shell explains sights, sounds of facility
It might be just days until the petrochemical behemoth on the Ohio River starts making plastic pellets, leaders of Shell Pennsylvania Chemical said during a virtual meeting Wednesday evening.
As most of the construction workers have left the site and all of the buildings and equipment is now in Shell’s hands, people in the area are seeing what startup looks like for a facility of this magnitude.
A few weeks ago, an orange glow hovered over the plant, sparking speculation on social media. Then there was a white foam floating near one of the facility’s outfalls on the Ohio River.
Community members submitted questions to be answered during the meeting, wondering if these are indications of things to come.
It was obvious that Shell officials have heard these concerns before.
The orange glow was the result of fog reflecting the light of a ground flare system, they explained. Flares are used to relieve pressure during testing and, once the plant is operating, during certain conditions.
The ground flares are encased in a metal enclosure that’s supposed to deafen noise and light impacts and, when the fire is on, make it look like a sports stadium.
“We expect during commissioning, most flaring will be on ground,” said Michael Burke, production manager at the plant.
If that is at capacity, gas might be routed to the elevated flare on the west side of the plant, he said. That might create a large flame visible outside the boundaries of the facility.
“Once fully operational, the frequency of flaring — that’s going to be dictated by unplanned events,” he said. “Operating reliably should minimize those events. But we do know from experience that because of a shutdown, planned activity, unplanned activity, will need to use flares.”
As for the foam, Mr. Burke said, “It’s something we never want to repeat again.”
He stressed that the foam, which according to lab testing, was likely caused by small amounts of Simple Green, a cleaning agent, and ZEP, a substance used in asphalt paving, that was contained and vacuumed up by a contractor. It has not recurred and no aquatic organisms
were harmed.
Still, “the visible nature of it — it’s not at all what we wanted.”
It has been 10 years since Shell announced it was planning to build an ethane cracker on the former site of a Horsehead zinc smelter in Potter Township. The company was reading the market and making a bet that having ethane, a natural gas liquid abundant in Marcellus and Utica shales, nearby would give it an advantage over similar facilities concentrated in the Gulf Coast. Ethane, cracked at the plant, is the feedstock for ethylene, which is then processed into plastic pellets. Most of Shell’s clients, the companies that turn ethylene pellets into things like food packaging or car parts, are within 700 miles of here, the company has said.
Those clients will be receiving their pellets by truck or train.
Most of the trains coming into the site will be either empty or filled with light hydrocarbons needed to make the pellets. Trains going out will be filled with plastic pellets and some will carry heavier hydrocarbons, such as pentanes and hexanes. The main feedstock for the plant, ethane, will arrive by pipeline.
Plant officials said they’re trying to minimize rail activity at night and have lowered the horn volume to the lowest allowable by law.
They reiterated earlier promises that the area should smell no different when the plant is running than it does today.
“We’re not allowed to have odors leaving our property,” said Kim Kaal, environmental manager at the plant, said.
Ms. Kaal also directed attendees to four months of data from a network of 20 air monitors that Shell activated in March. These are passive air monitors, which produce air samples in two week increments that are sent to a lab for analysis of several volatile organic compounds, including benzene. Continuous air monitors will not be operational until after startup, toward which the company is moving “at the speed of safety,” Bill Watson, the project’s general manager said.
“I’d say we’re very very close,” Mr. Watson said. “We’ve said [it will be in] the summertime, and I don’t see why we wouldn’t meet that.”