German Plant Explosion

[dik]

from CTV News:

BERLIN -- An explosion at an industrial park for chemical companies in Germany killed at least one person Tuesday, with 31 others injured and four missing. Fire officials who tested the air said there did not appear to be a danger to nearby residents after authorities initially urged people to shelter inside.

The explosion at the waste management facility of the Chempark site in the city of Leverkusen, near Cologne, sent a large black cloud into the air. It took firefighters almost four hours to extinguish the fire that took hold after the explosion.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/1-killed-4-missing-in-german-chemical-blast-31-injured-1.5524421

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[EdStainless]

Is this one of their incineration facilities?

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P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[dik]

Could be... says waste management facility...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better? Looks like they are taking lessons from LA...

-Dik

 

[spsalso]

From the article:

"The city of Leverkusen said the explosion occurred in storage tanks for solvents."



spsalso

 

[MartinLe]

https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/explosion-leverkusen-chempark-100.html

https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/art...ieren-100-000-Liter-giftige-Abfallstoffe.html

Explosion at a hazardous waste incinertaion facility
as of a few hours ago, 31 injured, two killed and five still missing
there was a risk of another tank, ~100m3 solvents (I think) also eploding
total of 300 firefighters are or where involved
As far as I've read, they managed to contain the water from firefighting on site
there where warnings to keep windows shut in Dortmund (60 km away),
also warnings not to eat food from the garden in the surorunding areas due to soot, playgrounds and parks in the area are closed for now.
soot particles the size of coins where found in gardens nearby
Investigations into the cause are to start tomorrow

In your opinion or experience, how long should take to analyze the cloud and the soot particles? A list of hazardous substances is part of the permitting process and should be available to the lab. Results are expected thursday.

 

[thebard3]

Constituents of a vapor/soot cloud from a known substance should not be a mystery. If it is indeed a mix of waste products, then the composition should still be mostly known, with maybe some uncertainty about the proportions thereof.

Brad Waybright

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[MartinLe]

If that info helps: the burnt tank containes chlorated solvents.
I also don't know how sampling is supposed to work higher off the ground. I googled a bit but found no descriptions of the capabilities of these "Luftmessfahrzeuge".
I also just learned: portable GC/MS exist

https://www.flir.de/products/griffin-g510/

With solvents, I would expect IR spectrometers to be more relevant to pick out dioxines or PAC

But even with instruments like these one needs the right reference database.

 

[davefitz]

Considering the recent flooding in germany, perhaps water contamination of some of the chemicals led to the explosion, similar to the Bhopal India event. Not a good time to be a fireman.

"...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick

 

[MartinLe]

don't know if the specific area the plant is in was flooded, here's a map of the area with flood plains (blue) and risk areas for flodding (yellow) highlighted - the area around the chempark is highlighted, I'm not sure sure where exactly the incident happened but I think it's the near the smaller circle:

map from here:

https://www.geoportal.nrw/

Seen a few items that at least this time, warning of the public (via app, sirens etc) worked

A lot of discussion in Germany is right now about distance between the Chempark and surrounding residential areas (800m to 1.5 km), calculating the required distance under german law is not straightforward, the lower bound is 200m. (though not always enforced for older plants) How would that work out in the US?

 

[MartinLe]

Few days ago, criminal proceedings where opened against three persons (neglienice) from the plant.
Waste in a tank was stored at too high a tempeature, which lead to self heating.

And this is an information page by the plant operator:

https://www.currenta-info-buerrig.de/das-ereignis/#zeitstrahl

obvs. in german but the tons of images etc. might still be of interest to some here. Also the sheer fact that this page exists. I havent taken a deep look so I don't know how much spin there is between the factual information, and wether important things are omitted.