By Hepeng Jia/Beijing, China

China's biggest earthquake in over 30 years has hit the country's fertiliser producers, sending authorities rushing to contain chemical leaks and protect water supplies.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the province of Sichuan at 2.28pm on 12 May and, as Chemistry World went to press, had caused over 20,000 deaths with thousands more still missing. It was felt in most parts of China, and in Southeast Asian countries up to 2000km away from the epicentre, located 90km northwest of the province's capital city Chengdu, Wenchuan county.

Devastation
Sichuan accounted for 7 per cent of China's chemical fertiliser output in 2007. Sichuan Chemicals and Sichuan Meifeng Chemical, two of China's leading chemical fertiliser firms, have halted production at their carbamide production facilities near the epicentre, amidst safety concerns.

In Shifang city, 50km east of the epicentre, two fertiliser plants were destroyed by the quake, releasing 80 tonnes of liquid ammonia. Local residents were quickly evacuated and the leaks brought under control, but up to 100 plant workers may have been buried in the wreckage.

The earthquake has devastated China's Sichuan province © AP Photos

A number of phosphorous mines in Qingping, 100km from the epicentre, also collapsed, burying hundreds of miners. Most of the major phosphorous mines in the area belong to the China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina), China's biggest fertiliser producer.

Environmental concerns
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and the State Administration of Work Safety sent experts and officials to Sichuan within hours of the quake.

On 14 May, the ministry and the local government announced that no significant change in the quality of drinking water had been detected. While two sampling sites close to the damaged fertilizer plants in Shifang had revealed small increases in the levels of ammonia and nitrogen, water from the area would still be safe to drink after processing.

Despite their efforts, however, rumours that a reservoir in Dujiangyan, 50 km away from the epicentre, may have been contaminated sent residents of Chengdu and nearby towns rushing to buy bottled water.

Chunlin Sun, an editor of the journal Chemical Safety & Environment, which is affiliated to the China National Chemical Information Centre, says that the government now must look again at building regulations for chemical plants.

'The current safety rules cover site selection and equipment, but the structural regulations for chemical plants must be better than those governing other buildings so that they are more resistant to natural disasters,' Sun told Chemistry World.

She worries that, once reconstruction begins, new chemical plants will not be built to higher standards.

Water chemistry
Meanwhile, as government agencies have stepped up efforts to prevent water contamination, Chinese geochemists are calling for more studies looking at the effects of earthquakes on water chemistry.

Lihai Zhang and colleagues of the Ministry of Land and Resources' Geological Samples Centre, have detected changes in the levels of chemicals, including radon and boron, in underground water close to the sites of earthquakes that have hit China over the past 40 years.

'We don't yet know whether abnormal levels of these chemicals have a direct link to the safety of drinking water because they're not regularly monitored and little funding has been awarded to support research in the area,' Zhang told Chemistry World.

Water from sites as far away as 600km from earthquake epicentres have been found to contain elevated levels of radon up to two years before an earthquake hits, Zhang says. Carefully monitoring radon levels could help to predict where and when earthquakes might occur in future. 'With more regular sampling and monitoring, it could become a promising supplement to the dominant physical tools [for earthquake prediction] such as detecting seismological waves,' he adds.

Hard times

The quake is likely to hit Chinese fertiliser production hard, according to analyst Yong Deng at Shanghai-based Haitong Securities. That is likely to send domestic fertiliser prices - already high due to the soaring costs of raw materials - even higher. Massive disruption to the province's transport links will also hit fertiliser supplies, Deng believes, pushing prices up further in the short-term.

But Jing Wang, a petrochemical analyst at Shanghai-based Oriental Securities, notes that the earthquake may not affect fertiliser prices because much of the area hit by the earthquake is farmland. 'While output will be hit, demand could also plummet,' she says.

She believes that the rest of the country's chemical sector could come through relatively unscathed. 'Chemical industries are not heavily concentrated in areas mostly seriously affected by the earthquake, so I think there will not be extremely serious repercussions for the sector,' says Wang.


From Chemistry World
16 May 2008

[ 本帖最后由 sally208 于 2008-5-17 20:42 编辑 ]

Chinese producers suffer damage but extent is unclear
Jean-François Tremblay

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that hammered China on May 12 also wreaked havoc on the chemical industry in the southwest province of Sichuan. However, the extent of the damage is still unclear.

The deadly quake's epicenter was in Wenchuan county, about 100 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. The cities of Dujiangyan, Shifang, and Deyang, all located 30 to 50 miles northwest of Chengdu, are home to a number of chemical production facilities.

China's official Xinhua news agency reports that two unidentified chemical plants collapsed and that 80 metric tons of ammonia leaked in the village of Yinghua near Shifang. The leak forced the evacuation of 6,000 people. The State Administration of Work Safety ordered chemical plants in the area to stop production and to inspect their facilities.

Julie Zhao, a saleswoman in the Henan office of the fertilizer producer Shifang Anda Chemicals, tells C&EN that her company's production facilities in Shifang are mostly intact. But she adds that because of an interruption in phone service with Shifang, she still has little information.

Several fertilizer producers are based in Shifang because of nearby phosphate mines. Isaac Zhao, a Beijing-based consultant with the fertilizer market consulting firm British Sulphur, says he does not yet have a clear idea of the damage the industry suffered. "The people there are focusing on the rescue efforts. I feel it's impolite at this point to call about their production facilities," he says.

Many buildings in the city of Dujiangyan collapsed, including a junior high school under which hundreds of students were either trapped or crushed. Speaking from an airport while on her way back to Chengdu, Gao Ming, a sales manager with the natural fruit extracts producer Chengdu Superman, tells C&EN that her company's facilities in Dujiangyan have not been seriously affected.

Damage was relatively light in Chengdu. The contract research company Shanghai ChemExplorer says that the chemistry lab it operates in the city is in good shape.

Foreign chemical companies appear to have escaped the quake unscathed. For instance, DuPont, which has a performance coatings plant in Chengdu, says that its employees are safe and its plant is intact.

Chemical & Engineering News

Chemical companies report damage in affected area

Jean-François Tremblay
Reuters/OTHK

Soldiers stand on the rubble of a chemical plant in Shifang.


CHEMICAL COMPANIES operating in the area in southwest China where a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck on May 12 are gathering more specific details about deaths and injuries among their workers and damage to their facilities.
The region is not one of China's main hubs for chemical and pharmaceutical production, but a number of fine chemicals and fertilizer producers operate there.

Sun Dongliang, executive chairman of the Chinese industry group CCPIT Sub-Council of Chemical Industry, told C&EN that the area around the cities of Deyang and Shifang, about 50 miles from the quake's epicenter, is one of four main phosphorus production centers in China. He said phosphorus mines and phosphate-processing facilities in Deyang suffered extensive damage, although he was unclear about the details when he spoke to C&EN because phone service had just been reestablished.

Sichuan Hongda, a producer of ammonia and phosphate derivatives, issued a statement saying that 79 people died at its facilities in Shifang. The firm estimates its direct economic losses at $55 million.

Xinhua/OTHK

An anti-chemical-warfare officer surveys the damage at a plant in the town of Yinghua.


China National Chemical (ChemChina), a state-owned conglomerate employing 100,000 people throughout China, said in a statement that 36 of its employees died and 457 were injured, 23 of them severely. The group estimates its economic losses at $120 million.

Most of ChemChina's damage was at subsidiary Deyang Haohua Qingping Linkuang's phosphate mine, where 31 people lost their lives and 34 are unaccounted for. ChemChina said a hill slid into Haohua Qingping, burying seven dormitories and a sales office and trapping miners underground.

The environmental group Greenpeace reported that several chemical plants in the area most affected by the earthquake are still operating in violation of an order by the State Administration of Work Safety to stop production and carry out safety inspections.

Chemical & Engineering News