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Expert Reveals Dangers Of Explosion At Svetlahorsk Pulp & Cardboard Mill

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Expert Reveals Dangers Of Explosion At Svetlahorsk Pulp & Cardboard Mill

Low-concentration gases can cause harm to the health of local residents.

Today in Svetlahorsk, there was an explosion and a fire on a container with tall oil at the pulp and cardboard mill, as a result of which one worker died, another was injured and hospitalized, writes Silnye Novosti.

Expert in the field of climate change and atmospheric air protection Andrei Pilipchuk analyzed the situation, and told what local residents should be afraid of.

“The photo in the center shows a recovery boiler. Basing on the white smoke from the high chimney (on the right of the building), it can be concluded that the boiler is operating at 35-50% load on natural gas. The white smoke at the base of the chimney (below to the left of the high chimney) is steam, because of it, the chimney of the torch for neutralizing highly concentrated gases of minute volume is not visible. The torch chimney is visible on other pictures, but the images there are of rather poor quality, it is impossible to determine whether the highly concentrated gases of minute volume neutralization torch is working. The white smoke from a low galvanized pipe (on the left of the building) is a direct discharge of low-concentration gases of a large volume without their neutralization and purification, from which it also follows that the recovery boiler operates at a load of less than 55% (less than 160 tons of steam per hour), black liquor on the boiler is not burnt,” says Andrei.

The expert claims that low-concentrated gases of large volume (methyl mercaptan, ethyl mercaptan and dimethyl disulfide at a concentration of 83 mg / m3 (in terms of sulfur)) are now directly released into the atmospheric air without purification.

Andrei Pilipchuk spoke in detail about the danger of low-concentrated gases, and how it can affect human health.

“Technologically, as a result of wood chips cooking, two products are obtained: unbleached pulp and low-concentrated black liquor (lignin and other products are dissolved) with a temperature of 112 degrees. Low-concentrated black liquor is fed to the stripping columns, where two streams are formed - a gas mixture of highly concentrated gases of the minute volume, and contaminated condensate (very high concentration of dissolved volatiles).

The highly concentrated gases of the minute volume from the stripping column of contaminated condensate and from the low-concentration black liquor stripping units are sent either to the burner of the soda recovery boiler (only when it operates on liquor) or to the backup burner (flare). In other words, in emergency situations, there is a flare neutralization system of highly concentrated gases of the minute volume. In the photo, it is impossible to determine whether the torch is working, it is hidden behind the steam near a large pipe.

Low-concentrated high-volume gases are formed at three main technological stages - condensation of digester gases, washing of unbleached pulp, and black liquor evaporation. A feature of these gases is a very high humidity, and they cannot be burned by technology in a soda recovery boiler until it reaches 55% power when operating on liquor. There is no system of flare neutralization of Low-concentrated high-volume gases. In the normal process mode, the low-concentrated high-volume gases are mixed into tertiary air, directed to maintain the combustion process in the recovery boiler, only when it is running on black liquor, and accordingly, if the boiler is running on natural gas, then all low-concentrated high-volume gases from three technological stages are fed into a separate pipe and directly without purification, they are emitted into the atmospheric air; no purification system or backup combustion of these gases is provided.

Methylmercaptan is a colorless combustible gas with a sharp unpleasant odor, 1.7 times heavier than air, forms explosive mixtures with air. The maximum permissible concentration in the air of settlements is 0.00001 mg / m3. The odor threshold is 0.0001-0.0003 mg / m3. Harmful by inhalation, if swallowed, in contact with skin. At a concentration of more than 20 mg / m3, irritation of the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and eyes, nausea, dizziness, in severe cases - convulsions, drug intoxication occurs.

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