What problems have the heavy snow and cold weather caused for chemical plants in the south?
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This year, most areas in southern China experienced rare snowfall and temperature drops. What problems did the petrochemical plants in this region face as a result of these climate changes? What accident happened? What design issues are exposed? Are the countermeasures during the production process appropriate? Please discuss this in relation to the factories and installations around you; I hope this can provide some useful insights for everyone! I believe everyone’s participation will enable us to handle climate change more confidently in the future. :)
I work in the north, where chemical plants pay close attention to anti-freezing and anti-condensation measures, as well as to design and production plans that take into account low-temperature conditions. It is unknown whether chemical companies in the south pay attention to this aspect. But personally, I think there will be certain problems.
The most important thing is frost protection; there must have been quite a few problems.
We mainly use coal as raw material. Due to the heavy snow in the south, efforts are made to ensure a supply of coal for power generation; as a result, the availability of this raw material is greatly affected. Power shortages are also a serious problem.
The worse the efforts to save energy and reduce emissions are in a particular place, the more severe the impacts will be
The wastewater is sent to the treatment plant via pipelines; in the event of a disruption in wastewater supply, industrial water is used as a substitute to ensure the normal operation of pumps and machinery as well as the steady flow of fluid within the pipelines.
There are many problems: production cannot proceed due to power outages, and the drop in temperature has caused many pipes and flanges to freeze and get damaged. Production is now starting to resume, but a thorough inspection is necessary before production can begin again.
Things are okay at our factory. The supply of raw materials was interrupted for a few days, but fortunately we built up inventory before the Spring Festival, so it didn’t cause any problems. It’s a pity that the entire factory lost power once due to electrical issues
It takes us 1-2 hours to get to work due to the traffic; it’s snowing and the roads are icy, which makes the journey even longer, and workers have to delay their shift changes. There were also problems with the power supply, so the vehicle had to be parked for several days
Shenzhen is okay; the lowest temperature is 5.5 degrees. Apart from the heater needing to run for a long time, there’s no significant impact. On the contrary, since the pressure in the container is low, the compressor runs less.
In fact, many important pipelines in the south are also insulated, such as steam pipelines, process gas pipelines, and other critical pipelines. As for those pipelines carrying water, due to their high flow rates, they do not freeze as long as they are in operation. It’s minus 20 degrees here, and not many pipelines have insulation; what’s really important are the valves. If they freeze up, they can’t function, which can lead to serious problems. Some of the throttling valves used in our air separation unit have frozen at temperatures below minus 20 degrees. In such cases, we have to use flexible hoses and steam to thaw them, and it takes an entire morning to get them working again
It took N hours to drive to the office, and the device was shut down for N days
The traffic issue mentioned upstairs is definitely a problem; I remember that during that time it was impossible to get gas at the gas stations. As for the factories, as far as I know, many light-steel factory buildings have been damaged and are under renovation after the New Year. Freezing is a problem that occurs in many factories; pipes freeze, and many of them get damaged to the point where they need to be replaced. It snowed heavily; the losses were significant
I work in Changzhou. The warehouse, laboratory, and testing facilities at our factory have collapsed; they are still under repair at the moment, so no experiments or tests can be carried out, which has caused significant losses to the company.