Posted on 03/15/2014 1:45:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
After Orlando invested $8.5 million and years of its workers' labor, an experimental energy reactor at a city sewage treatment plant suffered a massive, violent blowout.
The incident, which mangled a steel pressure-relief apparatus and blew the vents out of the city building, has sidelined a plant that had drawn international attention because of its promise to convert sewage sludge into electricity.
"There was significant damage to the building," Public Works Director Rick Howard said. "Given timing, somebody could have been hurt."
No one was injured because no one was standing nearby at the time.
The blow-out happened last summer, but city officials did not publicly acknowledge the mishap until asked by a reporter. The reactor has sat idle ever since, as the city's private-sector partner tries to raise the capital to build a new one.
[snip]
Other companies also are experimenting with the process, but so far no company has successfully used the technology to treat sewage sludge on a large scale.
Technical hurdles have stood in the way The reaction is notoriously hard to control. Temperature and pressure levels must be monitored and adjusted constantly to compensate for sudden fluctuations caused by inconsistent energy levels in the sludge.
"Things can get out of hand quickly," Howard said. "We're trying to control a process that is, by its nature, volatile and hard to control."
In July, something went wrong. An expansion tank meant to absorb excess pressure suffered a blowout, releasing a powerful, high-pressure shockwave into the surrounding building. The blowout knocked out vents and left the building's metal walls warped and bent. SuperWater Solutions CEO Don Morgan said the accident was caused by a failed gasket.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
So “the fit hit the Shan” as the old joke goes.
I was gonn’a say it the REAL way ... but ... yup ... sure looks that way.
About ten years ago West Palm Beach initiated a waste burning generator and it nearly immediately exploded killing some one.
Got it all straightened out but that guy is dead.
Whenever you’re dealing with new technology, there are risks.
Hmmm. You'd think someone would have caught wind of it...
It’s unfortunate that, when dealing with new technology that accidents do occur. However, if the process can be made safer and it will help keep the lid on energy costs, it should still be explored.
Waste incinerators are no new idea but that is curbside solid waste. I was part of a team that designed a recycling process for these facilities and Palm Beach was one we almost got to before the EPA made it impossible. Imagine that?
The truth is MSW Waste To Energy has been around for decades, mostly in the New England and Midwest areas. The intent was to reduce the volume of waste filling the landfills and WTE reduced that by 80-90%. But still, they were filling up and we came along with our process that recycled 99.99%. We also designed tire rubber recycling, C&D (Construction and Demolition) facilities as well.
By focusing on a start-up of any high pressure boiler system as a fault of the general process is ludicrous at best. Basically, they will use just a short duration of gas or oil to start the burning process, but once going, the trash moving along burning grates will be plenty to keep the boilers producing steam for the steam turbine generators. By regulating the flow across the grates by a massive control room automated process, as long as one has a constant flow of MSW, could go on unimpeded. But the reality of maintenance causes the need for a dual burner design.
I would suspect the WPB situation was due more to a faulty valve or other control device on the steam system if this was an MSW process.
Now, when considering burning sludge, it is not a self sustaining fuel and some sort of accelerant is needed to keep it burning and usually at a much higher temperature so the chances for what happened in Orlando are greatly magnified. What ever happened to just making fertilizer and/or compost out of it?
There you stand...
Employees going to Taco Bell for lunch was the death nell.
So is this accident more of a technology belch .... or a engineering process fart?
It is not suitable for fertilizer for food due to concentrations of heavy metal in it caused by people disposing of razors and other things down the toilet.
Chicago tried to get rid of it’s evaporated solid waste as “Nuearth” or something like that but wasn’t allowed to do so until they labeled it as not fit for gardening due to the toxic waste within.
They were allowed to sell it as fertilizer for flowers and landscaping only with the warning that it couldn’t be used in gardens or for food production.
There probably is a risk no matter how it is finally disposed of whether in rivers or dumped in a landfill. If in a landfill, the various toxins could possibly leach their way down into the water table.
I find it interesting that here in Florida many communities provide “recycled” water which can only be used for lawns which may still allow for the possibility of the various toxins being sunk into the water table.
The subdivision I live in dies provide the water and also a monthly charge whether one uses it or not. I know of one other larger town with mandated recycled water charges as well and I strongly suspect that there are others as well.
The various communities view recycled water as a means of lowering their disposal costs as well as an additional means of income. I am not comfortable however allowing my pets or children to play on such treated surfaces and it is important to be sure that the watering only occurs after everyone has gone to bed for the night so they don’t get sprayed when the system starts up unexpectedly.
Hold on now! You mean this reactor makes dreaded... greenhouse gas!!!?? (What the city has actually built is a reactor that converts tax dollars into waste.)
Holy crap!
Used to be done. Milorganite fertilizer was the sludge from Milwaukee. Not sure if it's still being made.
Some years ago 3 members of the LA Rams football team contracted ALS.
Unusual for a 'hot' spot of the disease that close together.
Turns out the practice field was fertilized w/ Milorganite and I think a lawsuit ensued.
The Players were Bob Waters, Gary Lewis, Matt Hazeltine.
Don't think a causal relationship was proved but you gotta say hmmmmm.
” as long as one has a constant flow of MSW, could go on unimpeded.”
Ames, Iowa has one of those, and ended up BUYING garbage from surrounding towns because Ames didn’t generate enough on its own to keep the plant going.
As for sewage sludge, Ames has a digester that releases methane, which is then used to generate power and heat for the treatment plant. The sludge is then used as fertilizer, but there was talk of problems with heavy metal and drug (especially contraceptives and antibiotics) contamination. I don’t know what ever came of that.
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