Re: DIG-L: RE: exploding digesters?

[Simm <simm@mozcom.com>]

I was one of those who commented this issue. 

To repeat the essence: biogas plants are not more or less dangerous than
other places or facilities where explosives or inflammables are handled. 

I don't know how simple I can put it. If you have children, you make sure
that they cannot play around with matches, right? 

At every filling station, you are supposed to put out your cigarette butts
or stay in the car and keep the windows closed, switch off the engine and
additional heating systems etc. A simple matter of precaution.

The smokers amongst us might carry a disposable plastic lighter in their
pant's pocket, filled with a few cm3 liquified gas, next to rather
vulnerable parts of our body. Do we worry? Why not? Has somebody heard
about an exploding gas lighter in somebody's trousers?

When pumping out sludge from a container, that is somehow covered to catch
emerging gas, a vacuum might occur and cause air to enter and, probably,
form a ratio that is within the explosive range. This happens every now and
then at many farms that have lots of cattle indoors, with or without a
completely closed cover over the lagoon, or the intention to produce and
utilize biogas. That's why the same precautions are, or should be, included
in the agricultural standard operation regulations (and be observed) that
apply for such activities: no smoking, no sparks, no open fire, etc. 

Nevertheless, now and then, a blast occurs. But that can not logically be
related to the presence of a biogas fermenter as such. 

Having understood the threats, it's easy to cope with them, technically and
practically. According standards have been developed by the biogas grass
roots community, and approved by the respective authorities (I speak for
Germany regarding the last sentence). 

To finally touch a different issue, I guess that was a success in terms of
"public acceptance of stirring shit".

Anthony Simm


At 11:32 AM 02/27/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear John and Group,
>
>Delving back into the logs of failed farm digesters in the US, I have not
>found any references to "exploding digesters."  I would council that any
>individual having a direct reference to such a system have it carefully
>documented and not spread rumors or hearsay about such.  Goodness knows, the
>digester industry has enough negatives to overcome w/o added more issues to
>overcome to the pile...
>
>However, if anyone does have documentation concerning "exploding digesters,"
>it should certainly be brought to our attention!
>___________
>Philip D. Lusk
>Resource Development Associates
>240 Ninth Street, NE
>Washington, DC  20002-6110
>tel:    202.546.6283
>fax:   202.546.3518
>web:  www.biogasworks.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: WHITE John [mailto:John.White@state.or.us]
>Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 4:44 PM
>To: plusk@pipeline.com
>Subject: exploding digesters?
>
>Hi Phil,
>You may have noticed some recent posts to the Digester list saying that
>accidents and explosions were a cause of disenchantment with early farm
>digesters built in the 70s.  I don't recall reading anything about that in
>your Casebook.  Do you have any information about the risk of digesters
>exploding?  I thought this was a non-issue due to the dilute nature of the
>methane until reading these recent posts.
>
>Regards,
>
>
>John G. White
>Oregon Office of Energy
>625 Marion St., NE, Suite 1
>Salem, Oregon 97301-3742
>john.white@state.or.us
>
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