Hydrogen explosion damages Eka plant

No injuries from blast

MOSES LAKE - A hydrogen explosion damaged part of the Eka Chemicals plant on Road N Northeast in Moses Lake Friday afternoon.

Moses Lake Fire Department and police responded at 3:20 p.m. There were no injuries reported.

"The damage was fairly significant," said fire Capt. Richard Penrose. "We were lucky there was no one in the area."

Eka Chemicals halted production while they investigate the reason for the explosion, according to Plant Manager Calvin Greene.

"We are fully investigating the cause so it won't happen again," said Greene. "We will not restart our facility until we are satisfied with our investigation results … We hope to return to production within a week"

The Moses Lake facility produces sodium chlorate, a chemical used in bleaching paper. Greene said hydrogen is a byproduct created during the process.

"The explosion was within the hydrogen piping and vessels," said Greene. "We don't store hydrogen here. We store them in vessels … before (it's) used."

Greene said the explosion caused damage to the facility but did not start a fire or injure any employee.

"We have one small flame that self extinguished itself," said Greene. "We are lucky … or blessed there was no injuries."

Both Penrose and Greene said there are no environmental concerns. There were no chemicals released from the explosion.

"There are no residuals from a hydrogen explosion," said Greene. "Hydrogen explosions are instantaneous with very high-pressure energy (created) within a fraction of a second."

Eka Chemicals conducted a standard company safety procedure by alerting nearby companies after the explosion.

"We notified our industrial neighbors immediately through an existing safety communication system … so everyone in our immediate neighborhood knew that everything was secured," said Greene.

Production is halted at the plant but roughly 35 employees are still working until the investigation concludes.

"This is a very unusual event for our facility and we are carefully addressing it so it doesn't reoccur," said Greene. "There was a similar event several years ago but not at this magnitude."

Greene said there are many safety controls used when working with hydrogen and added it is rare to have an explosion.

"No one was injured and that was our foremost concern," said Green. "We are working steadily to get things back to normal."

Eka Chemicals is a worldwide company with roughly 2,900 employees working at production plants in 18 countries manufacturing chemicals used in paper production, paper recycling, water treatment and for various other uses, according to Eka Chemicals Web site.