Dow Tarragona Cracker Trips

The cracker at Dow Iberica’s production complex in Tarragona, Spain, is down after an incident on Oct. 8, Spanish press reports suggest.

Dow reported that propylene gas escaping during a runaway reaction led to a flare-off, but it has not yet officially confirmed that the cracker is offline. The Midland, Michigan-based US group said there were no injuries and the public was not endangered at any time.

Downstream of the Tarragona cracker with output made up to about two-thirds of ethylene and a third of propylene, Dow also produces butadiene, LDPE and LLDPE.