Capsized barge in Texas port, may explode

Fox News Channel | November 6, 2003

[Tree of Liberty]

Just caught the tail end of the report. Apparently, there is a capsized barge in a Texas port (didn't get the port's name). According to the Coast Guard, there are chemicals on board that, if mixed, will detonate.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thanks for the PING!

[stboz]

The sulfuric mixed with SALT water will form some hydrochloric acid fumes and by being diluted, it is also ionized. The metal from the barge will reduce the hydrogen ions to hydrogen gas. The whole mess could go BOOM and splatter acid all over the place. I wouldn't care to be downwind.

[dglang]

a link with pictures for texas city explosion: http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/txcity/devastation.html

[Ramius]

Makes one wonder if it wouldn't actually be better in the long run to dispatch an F-18... take it out with missile and burn up as much of the stuff as possible, before the buildup of hydrogen becomes too extreme?

OK... maybe a lousy idea, but it would make for some good TV. :-)

[lonestar]

I remember it. The windows in my third grade classroom shook and I lived over a hundred miles from Texas City.

[petuniasevan]

Stevie Ray Vaughan.

[RayChuang88]

My guess is those tanks near the capsized barge have been promptly emptied as a safety measure. They definitely do NOT want a repeat of what happened in 1947.

Mind you, what happened in 1947 was already a disaster waiting to happen. The problem was that the ship loaded with ammonium nitrate exploded literally right next to a petrochemical processing facility, and the nearby petroleum products igniting from the initial explosion added to that horrible disaster.

[Ramius]

Yah... this doesn't look like it is sizing up to be anything like the ammonium nitrate blast, even if it does go nonlinear sometime soon.

From what I understand, that AN blast was all but tantamount to a small tactical nuke. Nasty business, that.

[Will_Zurmacht]

You know what I love about Free Republic...?
No matter what the incident/crime/high wierdness, there is always somewhere a FReeper who actually has worked in the area being discussed....

Unlike Lamestream media, who describe B-52's taking off of aircraft carriers, the guys and gals here have at least a smattering of knowledge of their topic...

I always am amazed at the mix of scientist, economist, farmers, workers, etc. who actually explain stuff to a simp like me in terms I can understand...

thanks to all the posters who 'pipe up with stuff'..... they make freepin a freepin great thing.....

[Thane_Banquo]

Stevie Ray Vaughan.

[Eva]

You are wrong, the company who owns the cargo has dock workers who oversee the loading of the cargo because they're financially responsible. I know, my husband is a Port Captain.

[null and void]

What's disodium iminodiacetic acid?

[spunkets]

NaOOCCH₂NHCH₂COONa

It's a precursor chem used to produce other chemicals that have a particular usefulness.

[null and void]

Polyimids? Kapton, Aramid, Kevlar?

[spunkets]

"the company who owns the cargo has dock workers who oversee the loading of the cargo because they're financially responsible."

The dock workers in your example are the owners agents. In your example the terminal and shipping company have an arrangement that has the cargo owners as the responsible party for the loading. This kind of an arrangement is not universal though.

A more common arrangement has the terminal and shipping company in total charge of the cargo, as with overland shipping. The responsibility moves from the cargo owner to the first carrier, then to the terminal, then to the 2nd carrier and so on. Crude is handled that way. In your example the cargo owners agents are supposed to oversee and are responsible for at least the terminal ops. That may be, because of clauses in the insurance coverage and terminal contract.

This story here looks like the chem sales company owns everything. It's not clear whether the acid was coming, or going. This sales company owns(leases?) the tank farm, the terminal facility and the acid, at least until the customer recieves it.

[spunkets]

No, things like glyphosates(roundup) and chelating polymers. Those are water soluble polymers that would collect metal ions. Maybe as polymer component to promote adhesion of the polymer to metal a surface. The polymers you listed all have aromatic groups in the chain with 2 side groups bonding to the next monomer unit. That makes the chain very rigid and the tight matrix resulting from that rigidity makes it high temp capable. The iminodiacetic acid monomer has a single bond linking it to the next monomer unit. That makes it flexible and limits it's high temp stability.

[spunkets]

I think Sterling chem is just a sales company. They buy refinery output and sell that to folks that either repackage and resell it again, or are end users that are under the refinery/manufacturers minimum.

[MEG33]

Hear,hear!

[spunkets]

In kevlar, polyparaphenylene terephthalamide, hydrogen bonding provides the stiffness by crosslinking with adjacent chains. I knew you'd be curious, so.