Ethane

Last night, Shell hosted a virtual community meeting to address air monitoring and recent problems experienced at the company’s ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. Executives answered questions about the plant’s environmental record over the past six months, including a recent odor event earlier this month (see PA DEP Investigates Bad Odor Coming from Shell Cracker Plant). Christopher Kuhlman, a senior toxicologist hired by Shell to review air data and assess exposure, told attendees that any inadvertent air releases from the plant have been safe for nearby residents. Not everyone agreed.
Read More “Shell Hosts Virtual Meeting with Community re Cracker Problems”

The mighty Shell ethane cracker seems to have “issues” in getting and staying fully up to speed. We’ve previously reported on a series of emergency flaring episodes at the plant (see Shell PA Cracker Plant has Another “Emergency” Flaring Episode). Over the weekend, Shell announced (via Facebook) it was shutting down part of the cracker plant facility “to perform maintenance and conduct repairs on one of our unit systems.” The shutdown requires the plant to once again activate its flaring (burning hydrocarbons) for an unspecified amount of time. Here we go again.
Read More “Shell Cracker Flares Again, Shuts Down Part of Plant for Repairs”

The mighty Shell ethane cracker seems to have “issues” in getting, and staying, fully up to speed. In what has become a pattern, about once a month the cracker plant is forced to use flaring–the burning of hydrocarbons (ethane or natural gas) to safely dispose of said hydrocarbons during an equipment malfunction. It happened a number of times late last year as the plant began to come online (see Shell Cracker Plant has Flaring Episode – Skyline Turns Orange). Another flaring episode happened last month (see Shell Cracker Plant Forced to Flare Again Following “Malfunction”). And, flaring happened again Tuesday evening for three hours, according to a local anti group that keeps cameras trained on the facility 24/7/365.
Read More “Shell PA Cracker Plant has Another “Emergency” Flaring Episode”

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) early last week to the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility, for the third time since it officially began operation last November. In a letter dated Feb. 13 (copy below), the DEP stated the facility violated rolling 12-month emission standards in both November and December. Shell faces fines of $25,000 per day for each day the facility exceeds emissions limits. In light of this most recent NOV, two anti-fossil energy groups have asked the DEP to immediately shut down the facility to stop extra air pollution in the region.
Read More “PA DEP Hits Shell Cracker with Emissions NOV, Antis Seek Shutdown”

It hasn’t been a problem-free startup for the mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility. We’ve noted some of the more prominent issues as we’ve spotted them in the news. Things like the plant exceeding allowed air emissions (see PA DEP Issues Violation to Shell Cracker for Exceeding Air Emissions) and flaring at the plant causing the sky to turn orange at night (see Shell Cracker Plant has Flaring Episode – Skyline Turns Orange). There’s a good chance the sky was orange again last night.
Read More “Shell Cracker Plant Forced to Flare Again Following “Malfunction””