Business Concentrates EDUCATION
Chemical producers restart after Florence
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Flooding remains a concern for communities Chemical manufacturing operations on the U.S. Southeast coast reported no serious damage after Hurricane Florence, though flooding remained a concern through last week. Routine storm response involved planned facility shutdowns before the storm hit the Carolinas and Virginia Sept. 14.
Although Hurricane Florence flooded coastal areas, including Wilmington, N.C., shown, chemical manufacturing plants in the Carolinas and Virginia report they are unscathed and resuming operations. Chemours said its Fayetteville, N.C., facility experienced no serious wind- or water-related damage as a result of the storm. Given the elevation of the plant, the company was not concerned about damage to operations from flooding, which continued through the week after the storm. The site began restarting operations Sept. 17, with all but one unit running as
of Sept. 20, according to Chemours communications manager Lisa Randall. As of C&EN deadline, the company expected to have the last unit running on Sept. 21 after non-storm-related maintenance. “Our greatest concern continues to be flooding occurring within the community and its impact on our employees and neighbors,” she told C&EN on Sept. 20. BASF’s plants in Virginia and the Carolinas came through the storm unscathed and have resumed normal operations, according to Bob Nelson, senior manager of corporate communications. In Leland, N.C., a plant operated by Aprinnova—a joint venture between flavor and fragrance specialist Amyris and Nikkol Group, a Japanese chemical holding group—lost power in a regional outage after being shut down before the storm. Power was restored as of Sept. 20 as operators prepared to restart the facility. Initial assessment of the plant indicated it sustained no significant material damage, Amyris said in a statement. “Our employees’ safety is of the utmost importance and we took precautionary measures to shut the plant down ahead of the storm, so they could be home to ensure their safety and that of their families,” Amyris CEO John Melo said. The company said it expects to resume full production of squalene, a skin care additive, without any impact to its third-quarter or full-year results for the product.—RICK MULLIN
TYPHOON MANGKHUT
In the Asia-Pacific region, Typhoon Mangkhut ravaged the northern Philippines Sept. 15 and wreaked havoc in southern China starting Sept. 16. At its peak, the storm spanned nearly 900 km, with drenching rain and wind gusts up to 270 km/hour. It led to landslides, downed trees, damaged buildings, a beached Chinese navy ship, and the likely deaths of at least 100 people. The chemical industry in China appeared largely unaffected.—JYLLIAN KEMSLEY
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 24, 2018
Twenty thousand households were left without power in Macau, China, following Typhoon Mangkhut.
N.C. colleges deal with storm aftermath Universities in the Wilmington, N.C., area took a direct blow from Hurricane Florence. At the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, the building housing the chemistry and biochemistry department was hit particularly hard. “While the damage was extensive, it is not irreversible, and faculty and staff are hard at work developing a plan to accommodate classes normally held in Dobo [Hall], as well the work being done in offices and labs,” the university posted on its Facebook page on Sept. 19. No one at the university was available to speak about the specific problems, though. As of C&EN deadline, floodwaters blocked most entrances and exits from the city, and the university remained closed. Kristina Mazzarone, a chemistry instructor at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, evacuated the area with her husband and two young children, so she hasn’t seen how her campus fared yet. She took precautionary steps to move all of the equipment in her second-floor lab away from windows into an interior lab prep space and cover it with plastic sheeting. Though she doesn’t know when the school will start again, Mazzarone is already concerned how she will be able to make up at least two weeks of missed classes. “The missed laboratory days will be very difficult to recover,” she says. She also worries whether students will be able to return when classes start. “Our students either commute or live in the area. If their housing is damaged, they would not be able to attend classes.”—ANDREA WIDENER
C R E D I T: S H UT T E RSTO CK ( FLO R E N C E) ; ST R I N G E R /I MAGI N ECH I N A ( MACAU )
BUSINESS
