Qualification Test Program For EmergencyChlorine Scrubber Systems

Abstract

Industries worldwide are being charged with assessing the safety and environmental hazards of their operations as a result of increasingly stringent regulations. The widespread use of chlorine in industrial processes including water purification, sanitation of industrial waste and sewage, and manufacture of chlorinated hydrocarbons present concerns relative to human health effects and environmental contamination from accidental chlorine releases. Regulations have been developed which require the use of emergency treatment systems in response to these releases and identify minimum chlorine acceptance levels at the point of discharge into the atmosphere. The United States Uniform Fire Code describes regulations for the safeguarding of life and property from the hazards of fire and explosion arising from the storage, handling, and use of hazardous substances, materials, and devices. The primary requirements include operating hazardous material storage rooms in a negative pressure in relation to the surrounding area, and directing the exhaust ventilation from accidental releases to an exhaust treatment system. The exhaust treatment system is required to reduce the maximum allowable discharge concentration of chlorine gas to one-half IDLH (Immediate Danger to Life and Health) which is equivalent to 15 parts per million (ppm) at the point of discharge into the atmosphere. This paper describes a successful qualification test program for emergency chlorine scrubber systems conducted under controlled chlorine release conditions with on-line data collection. Performance evaluations of the scrubbers were based on worst case scenarios and included chlorine release rates of up to 100 pounds per minute as defined in the Southwest Research Institute test protocol. The test results provided vital information on the behavior of chlorine spills, release rates, temperature profiles, flow characteristics, scrubber efficiency, and exhaust stack chlorine emissions recorded from the new scrubber system design. Transactions on Ecology and the Environment vol 1, © 1993 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541