Document JJ0Rmm5ZabG0xEEKKx3ddVLga

.CO : --7 : & >' Interoffice Communication To : Distribution From : R. A. Frohreich/ J. H. McCulley Date : October 8, 1982 Subject : ' VINYL CHLORIDE SAFETY ASSN. MEETING SEPTEMBER 23 AND 24, 1982 'XfCtlXlD ------------------- Some general comments from the meeting are listed below. A report on the papers presented at the meeting will be issued at a later date. 1. Most serious VCM releases reported recently have occurred from storage bullets or spheres. Included are: A. PIMEX-1977- 1500 metric tons emitted- Seven storage bulletsFire and explosions resulted. Maintenance was being done on Tufline valve on discharge of one of bullets. Mechanic removed wrong bolts on valve and plug blew out of valve. B. ICI Great Britiah- 1982- 10 metric tons emitted- storage sphereno ignition. Transfer pump had been changed out. A snap on ^ purge hose was not disconnected and the valve was not closed. Pressure from the pump caused the hose to rupture allowing the release. The VCM monitoring alarms showed high readings but were disregarded for about an hour because of previous problems with the detection system. A l V.- -J~* ICI Australia- 1982- 1 metric ton emitted- storage sphere- no ignition. Mechanic was repacking 4" liquid discharge valve in place. Spindel was replaced one notch off allowing leakage when indicator showed valve to be closed. D. Petro Chemical Venezuela- 1982- 21 metric tons emitted- storage sphere- no ignition. Leak occurred through a fitting on the bottom of the sphere which failed due to corrosion. E. Goodrich Australia- 1982- 676 metric tons emitted- storage sphere- no ignition. Were replacing 34' section of 4" line just beyond the remote operated valve on the liquid discharge from the sphere. The valve could have been locked shut but was not. The actuator on the valve was held in place by a U-bolt on the piping to be replaced. The valve partially opened when the pipe section was being removed. Due to a safety guard on the valve, the valve could not be closed and eventually opened full resulting in the large discharge. . ............. - --. .. i DTH 000102812 1. Distribution October 8, 1982 Page 2 2. The State of California now comes into the plants with a portable VCM detector and checks all valves, flanges, vessels, etc. for leaks. The definition of a leak is a reading of 10 ppm VCM above background five centimeters from the source. If leaks are found, fines are imposed. Also if a leak is found, the State will return the next day to check to see if it is repaired. Kvsor Century will supply us with a copy of the legislation authorizing this check for process leaks. '' 3. When Goodrich purchased the Diamond Shamrock PVC plant at Deer Park they also acquired the dry blend facility which is physically located in the PVC plant complex. The capacity of the dryblend unit is 110,000,000 pounds per year. Prior to obtaining this dry blend unit Goodrich had only small dry blend capacity which they used to obtain new resin cus tomers. They view this new dry blend facility as a way of increasing profits from increased margins on the dry blends compound to resin mar gins. They will likely be marketing profile and fittings dry blends. 4. Goodrich produces a 0.55 viscosity resin using a chain transfer agent. 5. Air Products and Conoco indicated they are only companies reporting VCM discharges to Superfund. Others felt since VCM is covered by NESHAPS, Superfund reporting is not required. ' '~ ' 6. To date world wide,' 99 cases of angiosarcoma in VCM/PVC workers have been reported. Only one of the workers had experienced acroosteolysis. 7. Goodrich experienced relief valve discharges from large reactors during power failures at Louisville and Pedericktown in 1980. Both plants had emergency electric power generators that started when the power failure occurred. A problem with the switching and electric distribution system prevented the power from getting to the agitators. . 8. In the Air Products- Justice Department litigation concerning relief valve discharges the EPA threw out all the incidents of less than 100 pounds of VCM. 9. Goodrich says they run at higher capacities than the industry average during periods of low demand. They believe they will have customers on allocation by March of 1983. ~ 10. Goodrich has licensed five PVC plants which are currently under constrution. One in Columbia and one in Yugoslavia will start up next year. These others are due to startup the following year. 11. BIP- Great Britian has licensed from Goodrich and have been in operation for about one year. They have three reactors, continuous stripping and computer control. They say the Goodrich clean wall system is very effective. They open their reactors only about every six months. The clean wall is applied before each batch. R. A. Frohreich Chief Process Engineer bs c: JF, DHS, AHS, CRM, VEM, VLT, RAC Chief Process Engineer DTH 000102813