CASE STUDY AT VALERO

MCKEE REFINERY
What was the incident?
 On February 16, 2007, a propane fire
erupted at the Valero McKee Refinery in
Sunray, Texas, north of Amarillo.
 A series of explosions caused three
workers suffered serious burns, and the
refinery was forced to shut down.
REFINERY DETAILS
 McKee refinery is Located at sunray, Texas
city.
 Refinery uses the crude oil as feed and
separates into different petroleum
products based on their Boiling points.
 Secondary processing units purifies the
products in order to reach market
specifications.
 The Valero McKee Refinery began
operations in 1933
DE ASPHALTING UNIT
 Production of high-quality deasphalted oil
for lube oil blending, or further processed
hydrocrackers, FCC units.
 In McKee refinery for deaspaulting unit
they used high pressure propane as a
solvent to separate gas oil from asphalt.
PDA PFD
Key factors
 Second control station isolated in 1992 as
per the process requirements.
 a foreign object blocked one of the valve
seats, preventing it from isolating
completely.
 water entrained in the propane passed
through the jammed valve and settled in
the low point of pipe.
On the Day of incident
 From 12 feb 2007 temperatures falls down
below 60F (below freezing point of water).
 The water settled in elbow, frozen and cracked
the pipe at this time ice it self preventing
propane to escape.
 On feb 16 cold front passed and temperature
rise up to 320F, ice began to melt.
 At 2 p.m. propane began to come out through
the cracked pipe at a rate of 4,500 pounds per
minute.
Series of explosions
1. Wind carried the propane cloud toward a
boiler house, where it likely found the spark
that ignited the entire cloud.
2. The jet fire caused the leakage of near by
tower containing HC’S.
3. A high-pressure jet of flame melted steel
column supporting a pipe rack filled with
petroleum products.
4. The fire caused leakage of one ton of liquid
chlorine which is stored near to pipe rack.
What was the wrong?
 The dead leg not positively isolated.
 Designers didn’t provide freezing
protection of pipe lines.
 Pipe rack supports are not fire proofed.
 Remote shutoff valves not installed.
 LPG spheres & Chlorine cylinders were
stored near to processing area.
Impact
 three personnel injured severely.
 Force evacuation of entire refinery.
 Refinery shutdown for 2 months & run at
reduced capacity for 1 year.
 Expensive equipment damage & loss
exceeded $50million.
Recommendations
 Pipe racks should be fire proofed.
 Remote shut off valves should be
provided for all hazardous chemicals.
 Piping should be permanently removed if
it isolated for longer period.
 Freezing protection should installed in
cold countries.
 Replace chlorine with alternate solvent.