Never heard “blow down” being used with purging gas lines. When we purge gas lines we always put N2 into the system ensuring at least one high point vent is open and don’t stop purging until we get no reading at the vent on the Drager combustible gas analyzer. Wonder how long and what diameter line they were trying to purge? Without looking at the P&ID’s, I believe our main gas line is a 12”. A guy I’m on shift with tonight has a friend who’s brother left the plant an hour before the explosion. We’ll be getting an update from him at halftime. I’ll post info as I get it.
Thank you so very much, that is really great of you to do this. What a horrific occurrence, and so little news in the aftermath,
Lucky guy - I’m sure he’s shook up though.
I’ll be looking for your update. Thanks.
When we cleaned out the line at Santa Rosa Station in Lima Peru, we just took off a flange and elbow and opened up the gate, literally
I was shocked to see it and made sure I stood FAR away.
We had a lot of rust and sand and particulates in the line, it was clogging up the fuel nozzles on the engines
The line we opened up was a 8inch or 10 inch line, it was open for 20 minutes
it was a brand new line, they switched from Diesel to Natural Gas. This was about May or june 2006
I’ll appreciate hearing from you about your updates.
Let the family know we (fellow power plant workers, designers and engineers) are thinking of them.