(155e) Dow Freeport Cooling Tower Failure

The Dow Freeport LHC-7 plant experienced a partial collapse of its cooling tower in August, 2008. Following the partial collapse of the tower, teams were formed to conduct a root cause investigation and to develop plans to safely return the plant to operations as quickly as possible. Through the use of small temporary portable cooling towers, the plant was able to return to operation at full capacity in 2 months. Construction of the permanent cooling tower was completed 7 months after the collapse and was started up online.

This paper will describe the details of the collapse of the tower and the findings of the root cause investigation. In addition it will describe the temporary towers used to get the plant back online quickly and the options considered for the construction of the permanent cooling tower.