3 replies to this topic

[Abm]

I am working as a Cooling Tower Operator. In The Chlorinator Room only Chlorine Alarm Is Provided in case of Leak. Leak If Any is Being Attended by Wearing Breathing apparatus after evacuating all persons. Is This the procedure or Any Special Safety system is Followed for Chlorinator Room.Kindly share ur Views. It will be most helpful

[Saml]

The procedures shoud be according to the risk acceptance criterion of your company.

 

- An operator responding to an alarm has a failure rate between 1 in 10 to 1 in 100. So you can assume that in one ocasion in 10 to 100 incidents the operator will fail to stop the leak and you will have the full relase of the chlorine in the tanks. If that risk is acceptable to your company (because of risk profile, because the instalation is away from any occupied facility, etc), then the procedure is OK.

 

- Operator using SCBA  is a good practice. It has to be supplemented with  a full array of meassures like mask fitting test, a tightly enforced policy of facial hair (you must be perfectly shaved to show up to work), periodic equipment review and a program of drills. Ideally you need a backup. In a real emergency you consume air much faster than in drills.

 

- If this failure rate is not acceptable, then you have to provide another layer of protection (automatic isolation of chlorine in case of alarm, smaller tanks, tanks with excess flow vales, water sprays).

 

The risk analysis is something that has to be done by a multi disciplinary team, with a clear risk acceptance criterion.

 

As an information, while many companies keep using chlorine, Incidents in chlorination (I guess you are using gasesous chlorine tanks) has led to different technologies,  even at a larger cost:

 

- Hypochlorite if PH is around 7 or below

- In situ Chlorine Dioxide if pH is above 7,6-8.0. It is very toxic, but it can be produced in situ so the inventory is always milligrams.

[Abm]

Thank U The Response. As U Said The Risk Is Not Acceptable. I am Here To Get an idea about automated Chlorine leak Response system if any in practice if the Alarm Triggers. So That I Can Suggest To Implement this in my company. Kindly Give Some Ideas or Technologies in Pratice.

[Pilesar]

Some find it good practice to store the chlorine in the open air alongside the tower so that any leaks will be caught in the tower draft and sucked into the tower where falling water will knock out chlorine as the cloud exits away from ground level at the top of the tower. If you are using ton cylinders, the special cylinder valve that automatically closes if a line breaks must be in good condition. It is difficult to be comfortable with a lot of chlorine around so the alternative treatment methods are often seen as worth the extra cost.

The Chlorine Institute has a nice resource with references:  http://www.almsawwa....anuary 2008.pdf