Positive news for the Shell Cracker in PA

A couple of positive steps for the cracker.

Land purchase as CLOSED they own the Horsehead land PLUS additional land:

http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies/2015/06/1...

Air permit has been GRANTED.  This was a key milestone for the project.

http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies/2015/06/2...

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Permalink Reply by Tim Tarr on June 22, 2015 at 5:31pm
Thanks Jed.
Permalink Reply by Trapper on June 23, 2015 at 2:26pm
From what I have read , the environmental permits needed to be issued before Shell formally announced construction approval.
The ball is in Shell's court. Hopefully an announcement is soon to follow!
0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 25, 2015 at 4:16am

The Cracker Plants will make all of the stolen Ethane very valuable to the thieves that have been piping it over to the Natrium WV plant as Toxic Waste.

Once the Ethane arrives at the Natrium plant they call it a valuable commodity. Any company who hordes an item including Ethane can control the price. In the unlikely event a state asked the producer to pay for what they are taking, the producer would make sure the price is low. Then it would be worth nothing and that's what the landowners would get.

After the Cracker plants start turning the Toxic Waste into polyethelene and other non-toxic products, the O&G companies that are storing it will become richer as the Ethane is declared once again valuable. We won't be getting a share of the royalties when Ethane is valuable, similar to how our well products are being sold below fair market value today.

It would be wiser to protect current and future generations in PA from the byproducts of processing Toxic Ethane into a harmless useable products. The toxic by products have to go somewhere and my bet is they will be dumped to the air we breathe, as is being done at the WTI toxic waste plant in East Liverpool. We are a Service Industry Nation now, so let China process the Ethane then ship it back to us. Why would we outsource production of most of our goods to China then want to process toxic waste in the US when we could outsource it to China? Because it will be cheaper and increase profits for O&G companies of course.

We all know that greed makes elected officials partner with Big Money and ignore the health & safety of the people that they took an oath to protect.

We also know that Big Oil & Gas has paid off the gov & atty genl in each state they have drilled in, which is why landowner royalty theft has made it's way across the country from Texas to PA, with the corrupt activity now in progress in Ohio.

If I were one of the corrupt governor of a Shale Play State, I would... never mind.

I can't imagine how a thinking being could sell out his states' landowners and still see any kind of a future, especially one who claims to be guided by God.

Permalink Reply by mark ondrusek on June 26, 2015 at 1:48am

speechless!

Permalink Reply by Trapper on June 26, 2015 at 1:55am
Geez....maybe the Shell Cracker and the all the prosperity it will bring to the tri-state area isn't such a good idea after all.....;-?
Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on June 26, 2015 at 2:21am
Ron,

Could you be more specific about what you're seeing as 'the corrupt activity going on in Ohio.' please ?
Permalink Reply by Thomas Malcolm Pendergast on June 28, 2015 at 11:21am

Ethane is not toxic or carcinogenic; it is highly flammable:

"At room temperature, ethane is a flammable gas. When mixed with air at 3.0%–12.5% by volume, it forms an explosive mixture.

Some additional precautions are necessary where ethane is stored as a cryogenic liquid. Direct contact with liquid ethane can result in severe frostbite. In addition, the vapors evaporating from liquid ethane are, until they warm to room temperature, heavier than air and can creep along the ground or gather in low places, and if they encounter an ignition source, can flash back to the body of ethane from which they evaporated.

Containers recently emptied of ethane may contain insufficient oxygen to support life. Beyond this asphyxiation hazard, ethane poses no known acute or chronic toxicological risk. It is not a carcinogen.[18]"

OK?  That was from Wikipedia.

Ethane most certainly is a very valuable commodity.  Why else would four companies be interested in establishing "ethane crackers" in the Ohio Valley to produce polyethane and other products?  i.e. Shell Chemical in Monaca, PA, Odebrecht/Braskem in Parkersburg, WV, Appalachian Resins in (I think) Washington County, OH and, most recently PTT of Thailand and Marubeni Corp. of Japan in Belmont County, OH?  Are these companies greedy?

Permalink Reply by Ragnars Repo on June 28, 2015 at 11:32am
Science combined with logic is not tolerated these days.
Permalink Reply by LewPa on June 28, 2015 at 12:28pm

TMP,

I say,bring em on, sooner the better that they build the crackers. This valuable commodity,Rex (Markwest) payed 15 cents per on the April statement, wonder what it would be worth in the future?  LewPa

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on June 28, 2015 at 12:33pm
I think Ron Hale's point is that it's being harvested by the developers without paying the lessors for it / actually charging the lessors for separating it from the natural gas so as to 'finish' the natural gas for sale (post production deductions from royalty).

I'm in the camp that believes that if it's valuable and being sold after separating it from production then lessors should be paid for it too as it is a natural resource extracted from the lessor's minerals / production in the 1st place (not at all a waste product).

JMHO
0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 28, 2015 at 1:42pm

TMP,

   I'm guilty of repeating what the authorities put in the news back when the ethane line to the Natrium plant exploded due to a technician working on a compressor.

The article repeated twice that the product in the pipeline was toxic substance being removed to the Natrium Plant.

I have a post for that time period since I went to the Natrium plant website and read that the ethane being piped in was a valuable product.

Of course I commented that there was no major loss to the O&G company since none of the ethane was a purchased product. All of Ohio's NGLs are being taken free plus we pay for the NGLs to be taken by having our Oil and Gas royalty reduced. I have the evidence.

I'm sure if I look closely at the Cracking Process that there will be some by product that US companies don't want to deal in.

Is Royal Dutch Shale one of our domestic companies? Has anyone heard of a company that is planning to crack ethane that is a domestic corporation?

I wonder why Dupont and Union Carbide aren't trying to build a craker?

Could be worth investigating.

Of course it's all harmless if the cracker plants are being built in Monaca, PA area, Parkersburg, WV or Belaire, OH. Well, it's safe for us since we live somewhere else.

Now I can hear everyone chiming in that its just another harmless industrial process. The same thing I heard when the WTI waste burner was put into operation. 

My opinion is, WTI isn't improving our air quality or acting as an Air Freshener, their burning toxic waste that prior to 1995 was only burned in the deserts out west by similar facilities. Notice Ohio allowed it to be built on the way out of the state at the PA line. Harmless here in Ohio, except when the wind shifts back to the West.

I don't think an Ethane Cracker is going to improve our air quality either, but you out of towners won't have to breathe what the O&G industry is going to cook up for all of us in addition to showing us a new social low, stealing from US Landowners.

0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 28, 2015 at 3:22pm

Now that didn't take long.

Here's a quick look at an Ethylene Cracker.

But before you read about it, a few questions for you folks in PA near Monaca:

How are your NOx levels today over there near the Mall?.

How good are your "relevant regulations" for disposal of waste in PA?.

Did you know there will be some additional Waste Incineration added by the Cracker plant?

The plant will be perfectly safe as long as a list of processes are kept under control by the plant operators. When things get out of control you might need to stay indoors until the All Clear sounds. At least I would.

I expect there will be a few explosions at the plant while they are getting use to the processes, but those accidents can be expected at any plant where highly volatile products are processed. It will be sort of like having a gasoline production facility just down the river a ways.

Here's a tip: If your kid comes home from the Career Center and tells you they have a job lined up at the Cracker Plant, you might want to point them in another direction until the "bugs" are worked out of the plant, or until your child retires from another career.

Chesapeake, send your ethane to China to be processed. You'll still make money off of it since all you will be paying for is the shipping.

Ethylene production overview by Siemens Company:

http://www.industry.usa.siemens.com/automation/us/en/process-instru...

Safety and environmental impacts

Ethylene plants require special measures for protection of personnel and the environment. Despite of national regulations, the following measures are considered as standard worldwide for any plant:

Flue gas emission control

NOx emissions are limited by use of Low NOx burners and/or integrated SCR technology for catalytic reduction. NOx limits are, in some regions down to < 50 ppm.

Particulate emission during the decoking process is reduced by either incineration or appropriate filter technology.

Fugitive emissions and VOC control Explosion protection

Areas where inflammable substances in sufficient quantity can get in contact to oxygen (air) become a hazardous area. In this case, measures are necessary to exclude the danger of ignition.

Water protection

Liquid emission of the plant mainly results from quench water, dilution steam, caustic-stripping (acid gas removal) liquid and decoking water. These streams are treated properly before being fed to the wastewater plant.·

Waste disposal

An ethylene plant produces a variety of waste materials that have to be

treated according to the relevant regulations for disposal.

LEL Analyzers

Mixtures of combustible substances and air or oxygen are explosive in certain concentration ranges. For each concentration mixture, low (LEL) and high (HEL) explosion limits are specified that depend on the temperature and pressure of the gas. Special gas detectors are used to monitor substances such as hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, CO and O2 to prevent the atmosphere inside or outside the analyzer house from reaching the LEL. Gas detectors are typically part of the safeguarding system of the analyzer house to minimize the exposure of personnel to flammable or toxic hazads.

Associated operations

A number of associated plant units and processes with the need of using process analyzers are required to run an ethylene plant, including e.g.

 Furnace decoking

·Flue gas emission control

·Flue gas cleaning

·Air separation

·Waste water treatment

·Waste incineration

·Explosion warning

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