Grumbling Tummy

The Institute of Incorporated Engineers ran an excellent visit to the ExxonMobile Fife Ethylene Plant at Mossmorran earlier tonight. The event consisted of a short presentation, a glossy corporate video and a superb tour of the facility.

Ethylene is used extensively in modern life. One usage it to produce polyethene, which is used to make products such as plastic bags, containers, nappies, etc. For the environmentally friendly amongst us, they are now producing bio-degradeable polythene. It does take approx ten years to bio-degrade but this is much better than the nearly indestructible polyethenes of yesteryear.

Some mind-bending numbers about the plant:

One of the safest chemical plants in the world

It has been over 600 days since the last accident

Fife Ethylene Plant is the largest consumer of water in Scotland

12,000,000 litres of water used per day

6,000,000 litres of water is released into the atmosphere from the process

800,000 tonnes of product per year from the plant

Seven cracking furnaces, with 50 u-tubes and 45 burners per furnace

Water and steam is used extensively within the process and can reach pressures of 70 bar

900 tonnes per hour can be burned off during a flare burnoff

Nine million items are held in stock to service the plant

Over £20M is spent annually within the Fife economy by the company

I’ve “borrowed” the Process flow diagram shown below from the ExxonMobil literature. I hope they don’t mind!

On many occasions I’ve driven past the site from the main road and nearly always glance over to see if the plant is “flaring”. This is the term used when they burn off the gases from the process through a 300 feet chimney stack. It can be almost hypnotic when the plant is at maximum flare: nearly a 100 feet high flame, burning off up to 100 tonnes per hour. Superb site to behold and you can feel the heat miles away! I’ll post a photograph the next time I’m passing and it is flaring.

However, I’ve heard comment from others that after a major flaring the local weather turns to rain. This makes sense: large amounts of steam are pushed into the atmosphere, which will condense back into water and the poor sky can’t hold onto it forever!

Another amazing aspect of the visit was the proliferation of wildlife darting about the facility. We came out of the training centre at the beginning of the evening to be greeted by an Oyster Catcher skuttling away. Iain, our guide, actually took us over to the stony walk way to reveal the bird had actually been sitting on a couple of eggs.

Midway through the tour, a fox was slithering amongst the trees and shrubbery just below the security fence. We were told that they had decimated the gull population that used to be a complete nuisance to the employees – things like dive bombing and waste products were mentioned as tactics employed by these menaces of the skies!

I was also impressed by the work they do and resources they provide for the local community. Fife needs more companies like this who genuinely care about the environment, people and the community.

The staff attrition and retention rates were also unusually in these days of employees and companies who don’t truly care about each other! We met a nightshift employee who had been at the plant since it was commissioned. Seems like an excellent place to work.

Unfortunately cameras aren’t allowed onsite so the pictures are from a distance. Next time we visit I will see if there are ways of getting to take some good snaps of the facility up close and personal.

Thanks ExxonMobil for a fantastic visit. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Big thanks to Iain, our guide, the nightshift crew and the security guys on the gate.