The Use and Storage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) at Bayer CropScience (2012) / Chapter Skim
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3 Industrial Production and Use of MIC at Bayer CropScience
3 Industrial Production and Use of MIC at Bayer CropScience
Pages 43-58
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From page 43... ...
HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SITE The 460-acre, multitenant Institute Manufacturing Industrial Park is located 9 miles west of Charleston, West Virginia. The facility is on the Kanawha River to the south, abuts Route 25 and Interstate 64 to the north, and the West Virginia State University to the east.
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From page 44... ...
(a) The region around Institute, West Virginia (b)
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From page 45... ...
In 2008, the facility hosted seven tenants. Bayer CropScience owned and operated 9 of the 16 production units on the site.
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From page 46... ...
as a starting material to one that used MIC. That year also saw the startup of a second, larger MIC unit to provide for the growing demand for aldicarb and changes to carbaryl production.1 In the early 1980s, carbamate 1 At that time, the facility shipped MIC around the world to customers in France, India, Brazil, and the United States, and to accommodate international demand, Union Carbide built a MIC unit in Bhopal in the late 1970s, with startup in 1980.
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From page 47... ...
However, the Institute site itself suffered an accident on August 11, 1985, FIGURE 3.2 The Bayer CropScience facility. The circle on the left marks the methomyl production unit, where the aboveground storage tank was located, in the West Carbamo ylation Complex.
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From page 48... ...
By 2008 the Institute plant was the only facility in the United States that manufactured, stored, and consumed large quantities of MIC. Liquid MIC was stored in underground refrigerated pressure vessels in the ECC, where it was manufactured before being used -- either as a chemical feedstock there or at the WCC to which it was transferred at night and additionally stored.
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From page 49... ...
. On August 28, 2008, an uncontrolled chemical reaction inside a methomyl unit residue treater in the WCC caused the vessel to explode violently, causing the deaths of two employees.
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From page 50... ...
The company's intention at that time was to continue to make modifications to the MIC plant at Institute; restart manufacturing of aldicarb, carbaryl, and the intermediate materials required for their production, including MIC; and continue manufacturing those materials until mid-2012. In February 2011 a group of Kanawha Valley residents filed suit to stop Bayer CropScience from restarting its production of MIC at the Institute plant until EPA and OSHA completed comprehensive plant inspections.
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From page 51... ...
Process design. An emergency dump tank for safe transfer of MIC from a leaking vessel, a scrubber to destroy MIC in the storage tank, a flare tower to destroy MIC from process vents, backup control room instruments, automatic MIC isolation valves to stop leaks, diking and spill collection sumps, a fire deluge system, MIC leak detection alarms, safety relief valves to protect vessels from overpressure, a diesel generator for backup power, sealless pumps for managing liquid MIC, fire protection for pipe rack transfer lines, and an independent nitro gen supply to prevent cross contamination.
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From page 52... ...
In December 1994, following that explosion, Rhône-Poulenc completed the Institute Modification Project, involving $50 million in improvements. These improvements included: moving the phosgene unit closer to the MIC process to reduce the distance phosgene has to travel in pipes; adding a new cooling system for MIC tanks, using chloroform, rather than water-based brine; adding redundant warning systems to detect leaks and to monitor pressure, 4 West Virginia State College became West Virginia State University in 2004.
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From page 53... ...
These changes included a new, downsized phosgene unit, reductions in pipeline capacity in chlorine lines, downsizing the MIC unit to match lower demands (since inventory of MIC required for production was reduced by 80 percent since mid-1980s) , modernizing equipment and instrumentation to safeguard the purity of the components used in the MIC process, additional emergency neutralization processes, and updated transfer processes.
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From page 54... ...
By August 28, methomyl production had begun, although the residue treater had not yet been brought online. There were multiple issues with the production startup that operators were endeavoring to fix, one of which was that the system was depleting solvent faster than expected.
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From page 55... ...
The explosion killed both operators who were sent to inspect the unit; two other workers onsite and six firefighters were treated for possible toxic chemical exposure at a local hospital. The Kanawha-Putnam County Emergency Management Director advised more than 40,000 residents, including the resident students at the West Virginia State University directly adjacent to the facility, to shelter-in-place for more than 3 hours (Huntington News Net., 2011)
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From page 56... ...
Carter, President, West Virginia State College. August 30, 1993 [online]
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From page 57... ...
Presentation at the Second Meeting on Inherently Safer Chemical Processes. March 21-22, 2011, West Virginia State University.
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