Celanese Plant Suffers Explosion, Fire, an Industrial Info Market Brief

There was an explosion and fire September 21 around noon at a plant owned by Celanese in Pasadena, Texas. The fire and explosion took place in the plant's only carbon monoxide unit, which serves as a feedstock to the acetic acid and vinyl acetate units located onsite. Those associated units have been forced to shut down as a result of the issues. Celanese is planning a $1.3 billion expansion of the plant to construct new acetic acid and methanol units. The next scheduled maintenance turnaround for the plant is May 2020. Industrial Info's research team will be monitoring plans for both the maintenance turnaround and the future capital project to determine how this event influences future project schedules.