On July 19, there was an explosion at the cryogenic air separation unit and 15 people were killed in Yima City of Sanmenxia, Henan Province, China for the natural gas thermal decomposition plant (for C1 chemical) owned by Henan Province Gas (Group).

According to local media Gas Ecosphere, on the evening of 18th there was a gas leakage in the cold box which stores the rectification column and heat exchanger. As they recognized the rise of O2 concentration up to 80%, the operation was stopped on 20th and just planned to make maintenance.
Soon after the accident, more than 270 firefighters from the local fire and medical department people and the neighboring Sanmenxia and Luoyang cities with 46 ambulances were dispatched for firefighting and lifesaving activities. 15 were killed and 15 got seriously injured and they say that several hundred people got lightly injured like glass scratches.

Li Jie vice-mayor of Sanmenxia City said, “We immediately checked the explosion site and the environments like air, water and soil, and found no occurrence of secondary disasters by air pollution.”
The exploded cryogenic air separation plant was built in 1997 as part of the Henan Province’s construction project of coal gasification plants, and was put in operation from 2006.

Even after switching of the coal gasification to the natural gas thermal decomposition plant (for C1 chemical), they seem to have being using the ASU in the production process of methanol, di-methyl ether and acetic acid.

The plant was made by Sichuan Air Separation Plant with an output capacity of 20,800m3/h for LO, 33,000m3/h for LN and 720m3/h. The steam turbine was made by Hangzhou Steam Turbine, the heat exchanger by Chart and the air compressor by Sichuan Air Separation Plant. For reference, the site area of the plant is about 877.100m2 and the enrolled number of employees is 1065.