Phillips Petroleum Chemical Plant

Explosion and Fire Pasadena,

Texas.

Prepared by:
Abdul Faris Firdaus Bin
Abdul Razzak
Farah Hana Bte Mejeni
Muhammad Hakim Bin
Salahudin
Nur Aida Izzati Bt Ahmad
Khairi
Nurul Umirah Bt Idris

2014214574
2014851776
2014473022
2014437418
2014283422

Phillips 66 Disaster

Overvie
Compan
w
Conclus
y
ion
Backgro
und
Preventi
ons

Weak
Points

Phillip
s 66
Disast
er

Conseque
nces

Causes

Phillips
Facilitie
s
Phillips
Process
of HPDE

Chronolo
gy

Overview of the disaster

What The Issue(s)
When Date
Time
Differences
Where Physical Location
Process Location
Impact to the goals

Explosions at Phillips 66s Houston

Chemical Complex
October 23, 1989
1.00 PM
Occurred during maintenance
Near the Houston Ship Channel in
Texas
HDPE Plant

Safety

23 fatalities; 314 injuries

Environmental

Explosion debris spread over 6

miles radius

Compliance

Fine

Production-Schedule

Business disruption loss

Materials, Labour

Damage to plant and facilities

Company
Background

191
7

195
5

Established Phillips Petroleum

Company: Frank Phillips and L.E
Phillips.
Named as Phillips 66.
The first gasoline service station
opens.
Route 66 that once linked Chicago
and Los Angeles.
Convert propylene and ethylene
into gasoline.
Gasoline production to the
development of plastics.
Polypropylene and high-density
polyethylene (HDPE)
development.
Polyethylene plant in Pasadena,
Texas .

195
6

Commercial production of high

density polyethylene in 1956 .

192
7

195
1

Phillips 66 Facilities

Phillips 66 Companys Chemical Complex

Pasadena, near Houston
1.5 billion pounds of the material per year
for two plants of producing polyethylene
905 company employees and approximately
600 daily contract employees
Fish Engineering and Construction
Incorporation

Phillips Process of HDPE

Dissolving
isobutane
chemicals.

ethylene
gas
in
and
other
various

Polymerization is an exothermic
reaction.
Monomer polymerizes ethylene in
the presence of a catalyst
Isobutane: Diluent in reactor loop
to maintain polymers and catalysts
in the form of suspension.
HDPE formed in a series
continuous reaction loops.

of

Separated from hydrocarbons by

flashing drying of suspension and
by heating.
Powder is transported to further
processing such as granulation,
storage and packing

Chronology
At 1 p.m. local During maintenance :
More than 85,000 pounds of highly flammable
time
gases were released
Within 90 to 120
second
After 10 or 15
minutes later

Explosion :
Vapor cloud make contact with an
ignition source
The explosion of the 20,000-U.S.-gallon
isobutanestorage tank and other 5
tanks

Area of Explosion

Causes
Root Cause

Immediate Cause

Communication Problem Within Workers

Lockout device

Bad Workforce Skill

Demco valve

Isobutane storage tank

Inadequate Design of Equipment

Reactor 6

Consequences

Fatality

Injury

21 Phillips
66
2
maintenan
ce crew

185
Phillips 66
129
contract
employee
s

Property
Damage
$715.5
millions

Loss
Income
$700
millions

Before the Explosion

After the Explosion

Weak Points

1.
Inaudible
emergen
cy alarm
siren

4.
Unutilize
d of the
process
hazard
analysis.

WEAK
POINT
S

3.Inadeq
uate
lockout
system

2.
Inadequa
te fire
protectio
n

1. Inadequate Alarm Siren

2. Inadequate Fire
Protection

But due to the ambient noise level

inside the building, some of the
workers did not hear the alarm.

Similar water system was used

for
chemical
process
and
firefighting system.

Until the explosion occurred, the

workers did not aware of the
alarm. They only realized when
gas is escaping

plants water supply for fighting

fire also was disrupted.

3. Inadequate Lockout
System

Phillips did not follow adequate

procedures for lockout of the
equipment in known hazardous
area

4. Unutilized process hazard

analysis.
A process hazard analysis or
other equivalent method had not
been utilized in the Phillips
polyethylene This shows that
serious safety issues were
ignored or overlooked

Preventions

Prevention
Carry out
Safety
Install
Appoint
Design
hazard
system
lockout
competent and test a
analysis,
should be
and tag
person to comprehe
risk
installed
out device
monitor
nsive preassessment
at the
for each
the place emergenc
and
hazardous
equipment
of hazard
y plan
inspection
area

Store
source of
ignition
safely

Design of
ventilation
system

Conclusion
Phillips explosion could have been avoided if they follow the safety
procedures.
Due to the multiple problems of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions
that happened in the plant has led to serious explosion.
OSHA issued 566 willful and 9 serious violations with a combined
total proposed penalty of $5,666,200 to Phillips Petroleum Chemical
Plant and 181 willful and 12 serious violations with a combined total
proposed penalty of $729,600 to Fish Engineering and Construction
Inc., which was the company contracted to conduct maintenance at
the Phillips Plant .

Thank you for your cooperation!