MOSCOW (MRC) -- Firefighters in Kaohsiung City worked through the night to extinguish a fire at a chemical plant in the Linyuan Industrial Park after an explosion and fire was reported at around 8:30 pm in the evening, January 29, reported Taiwan English News.
Thirty-six vehicles and 75 personnel were dispatched from 14 fire stations to battle the blaze at the UPC Technology Corporation (1313.TW) plasticizer plant on Gongye 2nd Road.
The fire destroyed around 300 square meters containing plasticizer dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and phthalic anhydride (PA) production lines. No casualties were reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The fire was described as intense and difficult to control due to the large amount of chemical raw materials involved. Firefighters battled to stop the fire spreading to the adjacent Formosa Plastics, and Taiwan Petrochemical Corporation plants.
The fire was brought under control at around 10:30 pm, but firefighters continued to deal with residual fires overnight, and were still dousing the area with water at 7:00 am this morning.
The Kaohsiung City Environmental Protection Bureau closely monitored air quality around the site saying that the plasticizers were a level one poison. The company will be fined NTD5 million under Article 32 of the air pollution law.
Nearby residents complained that this was the fourth pollution incident in the Linyuan Industrial Park this month, after a biogas explosion at the wastewater plant of the Taiwan Benzene Chemical plant January 12, a smoke incident at the Yaju Linyuan Plant January 22, and an air pollution incident at the Xinchang Chemical Plant January 27.
As MRC informed earlier, Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) was running its crackers in Taiwan at 100% capacity utilisation in end-December, 2020. The company"s crackers have combined ethylene production capacity of 2.935 million metric tons/year. Meanwhile, FPCC is planning overhaul of the smallest cracker in mid-2021.
Plasticizers are substances introduced into a polymer material to make it elastic and plastic during processing and operation. In particular, plasticizers are used for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The share of plasticizers used for the production of PVC products is about 80%.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PVC production reached 976,500 tonnes in 2020, up by 0.2% year on year. Only two producers managed to increase their PVC output.
Founded in 1976, Taiwan UPC Technology Corporation is mainly engaged in the research, development and manufacturing of petrochemical products. Its products include maleic and phthalic anhydrides, plasticizers, polyols, fatty esters, epoxy resins and other specialty chemicals.
MRC