Explosion Took Place in Lanzhou

On May 29th, 2006 an explosion happened in the aniline unit of CNPC Lanzhou Chemical Industry Company Organic Chemical Factory in Gansu province, southwestern China. The factory had been conducting overhaul since May 25th, 2006. It is reported that 4 workers were killed and 11 people wounded when they were doing coating in the facility. The explosion took place in the waste acid facility of the aniline unit and caused big fire. No reason was disclosed. And the company does not estimate the loss and how long it needs to recall production.      The factory experienced with accident is operating an aniline capacity of 70 000 t/a, which completed the expansion from 35 000 t/a at the end of 2005. According to the relevant department, no pollution will be caused to the tap water because the unit had stopped production for overhaul.    On November 13th, 2005 an explosion happened in the aniline unit of the Bi-Benzene Factory under CNPC Jilin Petrochemical Company, which is another subsidiary of CNPC and the largest local aniline manufacturer. (CCR 2005, No. 33) The aniline unit in JPC was completely destroyed and hasn't recovered to start production till now. China has a total aniline production capacity of 530 thousand t/a including the unit in JPC.