Posted on 06/23/2021 9:03:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin
OK... again...
Hydrogen and Chlorine mixed. Tested with several different light waves and yet only UV will cause the violent reaction. It is right here in this. No mistake.
interesting
I watched the video that you posted previously of chlorine gas and hydrogen mixed in a test tube and it is very impressive that under carefully prepared conditions UV light can act as a catalyst to start a reaction between the two gasses. Fortunately the same conditions found in the test tube would not be found within a 40 foot tall 1.5 million gallon container mostly full of air and likely could not be duplicated even with special equipment.
Hydrogen is much lighter than air... 15 times lighter. Chlorine gas is 2.5 times heavier than air. In a 40 foot tall tank with a large volume of air, as in this situation the two gasses would not have had the opportunity to mix or stay mixed in a very large container even if they somehow existed undetected in the tank in more than minute quantities. And again, gaseous chlorine and hydrogen are not liberated when you heat water even indirectly with a torch or arc welder. The tank had been cut above the water level and a bung was being welded on from the outside of the tank by a man standing on a platform from a boom truck. When the tank ruptured the boom truck was knocked over and the man was killed when he fell to the ground. UV light present from the welding operation would have been on the outside of the tank not the inside.
Chlorine has been able to be used as a weapon of war on the battlefield because it is heavier than air. I worked in an industrial area and responded to many chlorine leaks during my career including a massive chlorine leak from a rail car that required us to evacuate several square miles in the middle of the night. I can attest to gaseous chlorine’s highly unpleasant characteristics.
When chlorine comes into contact with the body’s mucus membranes it forms hydrochloric acid which is very painful and when it gets in your lungs it can destroy them through this same process. I have had injuries and many of my co-workers had to be hospitalized when the wind shifted during calls with large chlorine leaks.
One of the defenses against a chlorine cloud is creating a huge mist of water with large fog nozzles. That way the chlorine reacts with the water, the cloud is dissipated and the concentration is reduced.
If you add chlorine gas to a tank with water it will be dissolved. If there was enough chlorine gas in the tank to form an explosive mixture it would have made it impossible for the anyone to even consider welding or cutting without respiratory protection equipment.
As a hazmat team leader for many years it was my job to evaluate risks from chemical and biological spills and hazardous situations. I am sorry that I have been impatient with you and done a poor job explaining why the reaction between hydrogen gas and chlorine gas that you had knowledge of is not relevant in this situation. I am well aware that you will continue believing what you have chosen to regardless of any information that I share. And you just go ahead and do that. It is no skin off my nose.
My crew and I once showed up to a gasoline tanker truck in the middle of the night parked next to a large multi-story motel. The cab had caught on fire and the driver was running around screaming that it was going to blow and causing a huge panic. There were only three of us so we did not have the opportunity to calm him or the other people he had upset down. We just knocked the down with a couple of extinguishers in a few seconds and then cooled the whole mess down with our booster line.
Even if the truck had burned completely it was unlikely that the gasoline in the tanker was going to catch on fire because there was no direct impingement on the large fuel tanks. Tanker trucks have many safety features built in to avert that kind of disaster. Our chief concern was to put the fire out quickly to protect the exposures and prevent people from getting hurt while running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
The scenario you envision is so unlikely that it will not be considered in the investigation to figure out what went wrong. One of the problems these days is that people see so much staged nonsense in movies and on TVs that they no longer are able to judge the actual hazards when something goes wrong. You have knowledge of a reaction featured in demonstrations between two gasses under carefully controlled conditions when exposed to UV light. You have let your imagination use this knowledge to come up with a scenario that is by any realistic measure... impossible.
You have absolutely no reason to apologize my friend. You stood on what you believed based on your skills and tool set. :)
That is to be highly respected from every source. To be honest I had to chase it down myself to make sure I was not full of crap yesterday. lol
You shared a compelling argument and I had to go make sure I was even on the right track myself. :)
What a freaky accident... It would be extremely difficult to try and replicate the perfect conditions for that to happen.
You are very gracious. For whatever reason I remember what I have had arguments about better than what I was taught in a class or read about. You have expanded my line of thought.
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