Chemical Plant Explodes in Florida: Produces essential oil products

The chemical plant that exploded in Florida today produces environmentally friendly products that are derived from essential oils, according to Environmental News Service.

T2 Labs specializes in the manufacture of specialty terpene solvents from citrus and pine-derived feedstocks.

The company also manufactures a number of limonene-type solvents from turpentine, the essential oil of the pine tree.

Another of the company's solvents is made of d-limonene, a by-product of citrus oil processing used for wipe-cleaning in aerospace applications.

It isn't clear whether the explosion had anything to do with the essential oil products.  None of the products that they produce has any use in the aromatics industry, although they do product biorational pesticides that "are environmentally sound and closely resemble chemicals produced by insects and plants."

As of this writing, there was no information available as to the cause of the accident. Obviously some of the chemicals manufactured, particularly the pine derived solvents, are flammable.

The italicized statement in paragraph 2 of the quote above from the ENS article may be incorrect, since even though turpentine contains limonene, it is a lesser constituent than the pinenes, which have traditionally been the major constituent used. According to Product Data Sheets on the company's web site the limonene products appear to be citrus derived.

UPDATE: As of Dec 21 an article in the local Jacksonville paper reveals that a pipe ruptured before the explosion, that one of the company owners was killed in the explosion, and that the investigation of the causes by the Chemical Safety Hazard and Investigation Board (CSB) may take up to 18 months.