The explosion that ripped through LSB Industries Inc.’s El Dorado Chemical Co. plant in El Dorado, Ark., also damaged the control room, a sulfuric acid plant as well as all four of the nitric acid plants, according the company.
The most significant damage, however, was as earlier reported—the DSN concentrated nitric acid plant which represents about 20 percent of nitric acid production.
The company said that due to the control room damage it is still unknown as to when any of the nitric acid plants could return to production. The room serves all the units. In addition, the company said it cannot give a timeframe as to when it will be able to complete its investigation. For now, the entire facility remains offline, without an estimate of when it will return. The company said the sulfuric acid production is minor compared to the other units.
The facility buys anhydrous ammonia for its production at El Dorado.
In the first quarter, El Dorado represented some 44 percent of revenues for LSB’s Chemical segment and 29 percent of operating income. However, the company noted that the income percentage was up due to outages at the company’s more profitable Pryor, Okla., nitrogen unit, which uses low priced natural gas, rather than higher cost anhydrous ammonia.