IP Paper Mill has Boiler Explosion

[zerosum]

One killed, sixteen injured, Sat May 3rd

 

[rmw]

I'll go out on a limb here and speculate; Natural Gas explosion occuring while bringing the mill back on line and firing the boiler on gas. I can't see black liquor fuel causing a furnace explosion in a Chemical Recovery boiler-explosions caused by black liquor (or smelt) usually blow the mixing tank below the boiler to smithereens.

As the mill had been down for spring maintenance outage, I speculate that it was being brought up on Nat. Gas prior to putting the liquor in it.

That's just me thinking out loud.

I have been up on that boiler many times over the years. This hits close to home.

Now all this assumes that it was in fact the Recovery boiler that exploded, not the bark boiler, but if it were to turn out to be the bark boiler, I wouldn't change my speculation.

rmw

 

[zerosum]

Another article said it was the recovery boiler starting up after the annual inspection. The fatality was a contractor.

The picture shows a lot of fire, most likely from NG.

Are recovery boilers harder to get online than power boilers? Safely, that is?

 

[MJCronin]

rmw,

Your speculation is very interesting.... The large fireball certainly reinforces the NG explosion theory.

Let me also speculate...

During recovery boiler startup, are any of the NFPA 85 features of the boiler sometimes defeated in order to facilitate operations ?

-MJC

 

[rmw]

MJCronin,

I wouldn't dispute your speculation IF the safety devices existed at all. Since gas isn't typically fired on a Chemical Recovery boiler during black liquor firing, I can't picture their being well maintained for firing just once a year when bringing the unit back on line. Most equipment in the vicinity of recovery boilers suffers from the atmosphere, especially idle equipment.

rmw