PEORIA, Ill. — Investigators with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have determined no citations will be issued in relation to a May 11 grain explosion at BioUrja’s 135 MMgy ethanol plant in Peoria.

This is according to Peoria Public Radio station WCBU, which obtained documents confirming OSHA’s decision through a Freedom of Information Act request. Two employees were injured in the blast, which occurred as the employees were patching a hole on the bucket elevator. While repairing the bucket elevator, the employees noticed a hole in the largest of the facility’s five grain silos.

“Both indicated the bin collapsed and then a fireball occurred,” an OSHA inspector noted in the documents. The employees were able to climb down following the blast and seek help at a local hospital. One was treated for smoke inhalation; the other received treatment for a minor hand burn. 

OSHA’s decision to issue no citations after finding no standards had been violated and proper emergency protocol had been followed. “The way the employees handled the situation that night was very proactive and made the situation less of a catastrophic event,” the OSHA inspector wrote.

The blast and subsequent fire, which is estimated to have cost more than $2 million in damage to the facility and required Peoria firefighters to remain on-scene for days to tamp down subsequent flare ups, was blamed on grain dust coming into contact with a spark. 

“When we’re dealing with grain and corn, it’s explosive,” Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollenberger told local media following the blast, which was captured on an area surveillance camera. “So where it’s not considered highly flammable, if it seeks a source of ignition, what it will do is it will explode.”

As late as May 31 the Peoria Fire Department was still making regular checks on the BioUrja plant but their around-the-clock surveillance of the site was over. “We were there for 24 hours (each day) with at least three firefighters for two weeks,” Sollenberger told WCBU. “It was absolutely necessary to put a fire watch in place. BioUrja recommended it and we fulfilled that.”

BioUrja has reportedly reimbursed the fire department $101,000 for expenses incurred in the response. 

Scott D. Carey, BioUrja Renewable interim president, told Ethanol Producer magazine that one main corn bin was affected by the fire, along with four silos, though one of the silos was used only as a dust collector. The other three were not being used at the time of the fire, Carey reported, and no other infrastructure at the plant was affected. The fermentation systems, distillation system and load out infrastructure also were not impacted.

Following a brief closure, plant operations continued while the silos still smoldered. Carey said the plant had some unutilized storage capacity that could be used to supplement the loss of the grain silos. The facility could also alter its logistics network a bit to enable operations to run at full capacity, he said.

BioUrja Group purchased the ethanol plant from ADM in November 2021.