Oleon decides to build new fatty acid plant in Ertvelde
Oleon, nr. 3 in oleochemistry in Europe, was struck by a fire in their main fatty acid installation in Ertvelde on January 27, 2007. Barely one month later the Board of Directors decided to build a complete new fatty acid plant on a nearby piece of land. This investment of more than 30 million ¤ will put Ertvelde again on the map as one of the world leaders in its sector.
On January 27, 2007 a column of the main distillation unit (yearly distillation capacity of 110.000 tons) of the Oleon fatty acid plant was totally destroyed by a fire. By the swift intervention of the fire brigades of Ghent and Zelzate the damage could be limited to that part of the plant. Nobody was injured. The other fatty acid plant, including a smaller distillation unit (yearly capacity of 80.000 tons) was not struck by the fire and could continue producing.
The serious damage to the surrounding installations (the previous step, namely 2 splitting towers) in the affected fatty acid plant was caused by the development of heat and the fire extinguishing water. One of the 2 splitting towers has already been restarted. The second splitting tower will be started up during April.
The 3 other plants: the glycerine distillation, the fatty alcohols plant and especially the brand new biodiesel plant were not affected by the fire and have not lost one single day of production. All expertises and negotiations with the insurance companies are still ongoing. All personnel was mobilised to speed up the restart.