August 29, 2003

Gas Explosion Rocks Iowa Soybean Plant

ED Note: These two stories below show how dangerous the use of hexane is for soy plant workers. Natural food consumers can help shift market demand by asking food manufacturers if their soy protein isolate is made with the use of hexane, and also requesting such firms seek alternatives.

Associated Press
Staff Writer

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa - A gas explosion rocked a soybean processing plant in western Iowa on Friday, injuring eight people and sparking a fire, authorities said.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze after four hours at the Ag Processing Inc. plant, about 20 miles south of Sioux City, said Woodbury County Emergency Management Coordinator Gary Brown.

Three of the eight people injured were in critical condition at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, said Dr. Larry Sellers, chief medical officer. Most of the injuries involve burns and internal injuries from inhaling the hot gas, he said.

The plant, which employs 50 people and makes soybean oil and soybean meal, was shut down for routine cleaning and maintenance when the explosion occurred just before 9 a.m.

Brown said the explosion involved hexane gas, a highly flammable chemical used to extract vegetable oils from crops such as soybeans.

Jim Rodenburg, a spokesman at Ag Processing headquarters in Omaha, Neb., said there had been an incident at the company's plant, but he said he could not elaborate. The company was investigating, he said.

Nine years ago, an explosion at a fertilizer plant in the same industrial complex killed four people, injured 18 and released a toxic cloud of ammonia.

 

Eight injured in Iowa soy plant explosion

Reuters Newsdesk

CHICAGO - An explosion at a soybean processing plant in western Iowa injured eight plant employees on Friday, five of them critically, officials from the company, police and hospital said.

The Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, plant, owned by Ag Processing Inc. (AGP), was shut at the time of the explosion for routine maintenance work, according to Woodbury County sheriff Dave Amick. He said the cause of the explosion, at around 9 a.m. CDT (1400 GMT), was not yet known.

"There was an explosion, with a fire," Amick said.

AGP spokesman Mike Maranell said the explosion took place at the extraction facility of the plant that crushes soybeans to produce soymeal feed and soybean oil. He said it was too early to say when the facility would resume operations.

The plant also produces methyl ester, a biodegradable solvent made from soy oil that is used as a lubricant in soy diesel fuel.

AGP said in a written statement that eight employees were injured in the incident, and five of them are in critical condition.

"A complete and thorough investigation is being conducted and it may be several days before the exact cause is know," the company said.

Rick Wollman, spokesman for Mercy Medical Center in nearby Sioux City, said the injured were treated at the hospital's emergency unit. Three had been released, and two, in critical condition, were airlifted to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

"The extent of their injuries were such that we could not treat them," he said, adding that they had inhaled a chemical called hexane that is used at the AGP plant.

The two, as well as the other three AGP employees still at the hospital, had also suffered from external burns.

AGP has said the plant has the capacity to produce 50 million pounds of product a year, and was designed to be able to produce 200 million pounds per year as demand grows. (Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen, Eric Noe)