Wanhua Chemical US Operations, LLC Convent, St. James Parish, Louisiana Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate Plant (MDI) February 2019 Wilma Subra subracom@aol.com $1.12 Billon Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate Plant (MDI) Production - 400,000 metric tons per year of MDI Grass roots polyurethane facility. MDI is used in making polyurethanes To Produce MDI and Ethylene Dichloride (EDC) 250 acre site at the northwest corner of LA 3125 and La 3214 on the east bank of the Mississippi River – near Mosaic Uncle Sam and Occidental Chemical 170 new jobs, 1,230 new direct and indirect jobs, 1,000 construction jobs during peak construction activities Louisiana has offered $4.3 million grant to offset infrastructure cost Workforce Development Program LED FastStart Quality Jobs Program Industrial Tax Exemption Program Wanhua Chemical Group was founded in 2001 and is a Chinese Chemical Company that is the world’s largest producer of isocyanate in terms of capacity, 2.1 million tons per year. In 2017, the world production of MDI was 7.5 million tons and the Wanhua Group was the largest producer. Wanhua has two MDI plants in China and one in Hungary. The China MDI plants are located in Ningbo and Yantai. The Yantai Plant in China had an explosion in September 2016 that killed four and injured 4 individuals. The Yantai MDI Plant had an apparent clean industrial safety record until the explosion. At the time of the 2016 Yantai Plant explosion, Greenpeace released a report on the Chinese Chemical Industry’s poor safety record. There were 232 chemical relate accidents in China between January and August 2016, almost one per day. One fourth of the accidents were associated with production and more than one half occurred during shipping. There were 199 deaths and 400 injuries. BHOPAL Disaster On the night of December 2-3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in India leaked/released, into the air, between 30 and 40 tons of highly toxic Methyl Isocyanate and other poisonous gases. The air emissions exposed more than 500,000 people to the toxic gases. Approximately 4,000 people were quickly killed and a total of 15,000 people were killed over the next few years. As a result of this one event, major regulatory changes were adopted in the United States to address the threats of chemical storage, manufacture and releases of hazard and toxic chemicals and materials and requirements to report to the public the toxic chemicals manufactured, processed and stored at industrial facilities. 2 MDI Chemical Process React Aniline and Formaldehyde using Hydrochloric Acid as a catalyst to produce a mixture of Diamine precursors and Polyamines. Diamine treated with Phosgene to form a mixture of Isocyanates. Distillation of the mixture gives a mixture of Oligomeric Polyisocyanate known a Polymeric Isomer mixture. The crude MDI is further refined into monomeric MDI and polymeric MDI. MDI Production Units MDI Thermal Oxidizer Toluene Distillation Column Phosgene Stripper MDA Secondary Reactor MCB Stripper MDI Destruct Tower MCB Purification Column MDI Cooling Tower Pure MDI Column MDI Storage Tanks Main Phosgene Reactor MDI Carbon Adsorption Bed MDI Flare MDI HCL Scrubber Tower MDA Main Reactor HCL Absorption Column Neutralization Reactor MDI Reactor MDA Extraction Column Product Loading Units Aniline Stripper Waste Water Extraction Column 3 BASF Corporation, Geismar, Ascension Parish - Two MDI Plants The BASF Corporation in Geismar, Louisiana is an integrated chemical manufacturing facility. The site has an Acetylene Plant, Specialty Amines Complex, Ethlene Oxide/Ethylene Glycol Plant, two Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI) Plants, Vinylpyrrolidone/Polyvinylpyrrolidone (NVP/PVP) Plant, Polyol Plant, Surfactants Plant, Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) Plant, Formic Acid Plant and two Aniline Plants. The two BASF MDI Plants produce 300,000 metric tons per year of MDI. A major expansion, begun in 2018, will increase the overall capacity to slightly less than 600,000 metric tons of MDI per year. Since Wanhua air permit application information is not yet available, on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Electronic Data Management System, the chemicals permitted by DEQ for the two MDI Plants at BASF will be used to demonstrate the chemicals that will potentially be released into the air by the Wanhua proposed plant and the health impacts associated with the chemicals to be released into the air. Air Emission Chemicals Aniline Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI) Benzene Methylene Diphenyl Carbon Tetrachloride Phosgene Chlorobenzene Toluene Chloroform Tetrachloroethylene Formaldehyde 1,2-Dichloropropane n-Hexane 4,4’-Methylenebisbenzenamine Methanol Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) 4 Health Impacts of Chemicals to be Released into the Air by the Wanhua Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate Plant (MDI) Acute Health Impacts Irritates the skin, eyes, nose, throat, mouth and lungs. Causes rashes, coughing, wheezing, headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, trouble breathing, lightheadedness, dizziness, weakness, muscle pain, nausea, upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea. Effects the nervous system, concentration, causes memory loss, lack of coordination, blurred vision, disturbance of sleep, trouble concentrating, irritability, convulsions, asthma, buildup of fluids in the lungs and chronic pulmonary edema, bronchitis. Chronic Health Impacts Known and suspected human carcinogens. Causes cancer of the nasopharynx, spleen, liver, kidney, lungs, thyroid, brain, bladder, esophagus, intestines. Causes leukemia (blood cancer). Known and suspected teratogen (malformation of embryo). Damages lungs, liver, kidneys and nervous system. Damages developing fetus. Damages testes, male reproduction system. Decreases sperm counts. Damages female organs and causes reproductive cycle disorders. 5