A natural gas processing plant in Washington County remains offline after a Christmas day fire ripped through a section of the Energy Transfer facility, sending fire from a flare into the sky for more than 10 hours.
The cause of the fire and what some residents described as an explosion at the Revolution Cryogenic plant is still under investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Texas-based company.
DEP officials were notified of the problem on the day it happened, but have not yet inspected the facility. They plan to make their first visit on Tuesday.
The episode began at 7:20 a.m. on Dec. 25 when a valve failed, releasing hydrocarbons which ignited. The fire spread through the plant’s amine system, which removes certain impurities like carbon dioxide from the gas stream. As is the protocol with gas infrastructure fires, the flames aren’t extinguished but are, instead, allowed to burn through the available gas, with the supply being shut off.
Neighbors nearby heard a jet engine noise and one family with kids fled, fearing a larger explosion.
The gas that arrives at the Revolution plant comes from shale gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania and is delivered through Energy Transfer’s Revolution pipeline — the same conduit that had its own explosion in September 2018 when, a few days after being activated, it slid down a rain-soaked hill and ruptured.
At the Revolution Plant in Smith Township, that gas is processed and separated into its components, such as butane, propane and ethane.
It wasn’t clear how much gas was emitted in the fire.
“The product that was released/combusted was C2+ vapor,” the company told regulators a few days after the fire. “We are working on an estimate of volume released to determine emissions and will send an update when that information is available.”
Energy Transfer did not return requests for information on Monday. The company has a crane and other equipment on site.
The plant is located in a cluster of natural gas facilities, with two large natural gas compressor stations, Mark West’s Harmon Creek cryogenic gas processing plant, and a well pad all packed into an area of less than half a square mile.
First Published: January 3, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: January 3, 2023, 11:54 a.m.
