Apr 26 - Quite a scene at the Superior Refinery in you guessed it Superior, Wisconsin right on the taint end of Lake Superior, the Great Lakes’ largest lake (I think). Husky Energy are the fine folks who are stuck holding this hot potato passed around now since Murphy Oil squeezed the last bit of blood out of this turnip in the early 2000s. A number of mostly chemical manufacturers have tried to make a go at this puppy, selling for almost $500M not even six months ago. That’s what I call failing up!
The facility was on a shut-down as they desperately struggled to get this show back on the road. Husky wanted it because it gets them a direct line to their Hardisty Canada storage terminals. This facility is primarily an asphalt plant but a number of side jobs allowed it to produce some refined product such as gas and diesel as well as a chemicals unit.
The details are mum still a week or two later, but likely some maintenance activities (think hot work) ignited flammable vapors (and from the two explosions that were felt almost a half-mile away as well as the debris and damage found all around the plant, it was probably a lot) in the fluid catalytic cracking unit. Only eleven workers were injured who were working around the unit when the explosion went, and thats pretty amazing. Husky made pains to let you know that no hydrogen fluoride was harmed during this incident, so almost certainly the alkylation process was involved with the explosion (where HF is used as a catalyzer in the process). Use of HF as a catalyzer at refineries is a complaint from communities as old as time.
Also, despite the smoke plume traveling for over 30 miles, no air quality concerns were noted. As a matter of fact, Mayor of Superior, Jim Paine (sense the theme here?) was quick to end the evacuation order and pointed out less than 20 hours later that “All indications are that the refinery site is safe and stable and the air quality is clean and normal”. A relief to the many residents, schools, and businesses under order to leave.
Needless to say, this little engine that could has faced a minor setback and will be back to cranking out those ultra-long carbon chains in no time at all.