"A towering explosion at a century-old Philadelphia oil refinery earlier this year released 5,239 pounds of a hydrofluoric acid, federal investigators said today, the first time they have seen releases of the potentially deadly chemical during a refinery blast.
Hydrofluoric acid, or HF, which can cause severe lung injuries or death if inhaled, was used at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery to make high-octane gasoline.
But when a 46-year-old pipe elbow containing a mixture of propane and HF ruptured in the early hours of June 21, the process fluid formed a "large ground-hugging vapor cloud" that quickly ignited, setting off a series of explosions and sending thousands of pounds of debris flying at the now shuttered PES refinery, the Chemical Safety Board said in an investigation update."
Corbin Hiar and Ariana Figueroa report for Greenwire October 16, 2019.
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