Explosion - safety!!

[oliver90owner]

Just a reminder for all those tinkering with chemicals.  I know some are chemists and understand the safety issues and some are not (but they may understand the risks).

A guy near here blew up his garage (workshop) while making bio-diesel.  He was in it at the time.

20% burns has been reported.  Don't know what severity of burns but not nice. Nor do I know of the damage to the building.

Reports say he was mixing a tank/vat using an electric drill with stirrer.  Drill was no more than a domestic/commercial product and was not spark-proof. 

Hot, volatile organics plus the right amount in air. 'Nuff said.

Just be careful and don't take unecessary risks.

Regards, RAB

[Doug]

I walked away from Biodiesel and SVO forums because they are a bull headed stuborn group of people who seem to lack the basic understanding of the dangers of fire explosion and only recently the toxic nature of many things like Methanol.

Many years ago we tackled many problems simmilar to biodiesle in the Home brew all mash brewing groups.

The need for better equipment and methods then lead to the final last word in Heat Exchanger Recirc Mash systems.
The extact same things could make much safe better Biodiesel but I was told its not a problem.

I must have some stripped gears in my thought machine possibly cause by years working in Petrochemcials and heavy industry.....

[mobile_bob]

i have often wondered about issues of explosion when working with biodiesel in some of these homebrew setups
also am reminded of how gunpowder facilities are setup (at least the black powder ones) where the walls are not much more than
cardboard so that if there is an explosion the folks insided have a small chance at survival.

got to wonder how well one would hold up in a well built and sealed up structure if there were to be an explosion,
first you get crushed, then you get toasted or flame broiled!

i have seen the remains of a 60x120 ft metal building after an unfortunate welding accident set off an empty tanker trailer
that had been hauling condensate.
nothing left of the building except for the main girders, all the metal siding and all the purlains and the end rollup doors were all over hells half acre
actually piece were found up to a quarter mile away.
nobody was injured or killed, and there were 4 other guys and the welder in the building at the time.

i knew the guy what was welding, all he said was he didn't hear a thing, just felt a pressure wave, lifted his helmut and all there was
was blue sky and clear concrete! the tanker split in two sending one half out one end of the building and the other out the opposite end.

that had to feel like shit! i cannot imagine how he felt, lucky on one hand that he and others survived without injury, but responcible for the loss of
not only the trailer but the complete building!

i hope like heck i never have something like that happen.

bob g

[Doug]

Concusion waves loosen your bowl.....

Sometimes you hear the shot travel through the rock, shortly after the presure wave finds its way too you traveling around the long way up raises and down drifts.

I don't like things that go BOOM

[rcavictim]

i have seen the remains of a 60x120 ft metal building after an unfortunate welding accident set off an empty tanker trailer
that had been hauling condensate.
nothing left of the building except for the main girders, all the metal siding and all the purlains and the end rollup doors were all over hells half acre
actually piece were found up to a quarter mile away.
nobody was injured or killed, and there were 4 other guys and the welder in the building at the time.

i knew the guy what was welding, all he said was he didn't hear a thing, just felt a pressure wave, lifted his helmut and all there was
was blue sky and clear concrete! the tanker split in two sending one half out one end of the building and the other out the opposite end.
bob g

Bob,

Your story collaborates one I heard from a technician I knew at an Environment Canada upper air weather station out in Alberta.  Every day at 6 am and 6 pm these stations release a hydrogen filled weather baloon with some basic measuring instrumentation and an L-band microwave transmitter in a small package called a radiosonde carried aloft to around 100,000 feet by the baloon.  They record air temp and have a bellows type barometer to get altitude data.  I'm not sure if they get humidity as well.  The receiver at this station was a WW2 surplus portable 6 foot radar dish with full tracking action in a radome on top of a short tower.

These stations mostly make their own hydrogen on site from tapwater with an electrolysis machine.  The H is stored in s a steel tank approaching 200 psi and the O2 is released to the atmosphere.  The balloon is filled prior to launch in a very tall galvanized sheet metal building, uninsulated,  with a square footprint which accomodates the length of a filled balloon.  Barn doors the height of the building are opened and the baloon is pulled outside by the technician and held to a post on the ground just prior to release time.  A metal ground strap is employed to prevent static charges from building up on the operator while in the building.

I was told of an incident at one of the far northern stations where it was very dry in the cold winter air and a ground strap malfunctioned.  As I was told, one moment there was a building around the technician who was filling the baloon.  Then poof and blue sky.  The building went in all directions and the operator at the center of the explosion was unhurt.  I do not recall if there was a personal laundry bill associated with the event.

[mike90045]

open brush drill motor & methanol

that sounds about right.

[MacGyver]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/28/takeaway_biodiesel_fireball_horror/