A recent article on ‘chemengonline’ was to do with sufuric acid and the storage and safety surrounding this chemical
in chemical process industries. I found this topic interesting as in A2
Chemistry I frequently see H2S04 as a reagent for many organic reactions. In
industry this acid is important in the processes making fertilisers, which
essentially help feed the population.
Sulfuric acid is a strong acid and when in contact with the skin it can cause severe burns and damage, the acid is therefore also harmful to the environment, for example if it gets into ground water. Now, having established the dangers of sulfuric acid, we can see the importance of keeping this acid well stored in industrial process as the acid is in massive quantities. Over the last year there have been many various accidents involving sulfuric acid spillages and release, so clearly there are still some problems solved to ensure accidents are kept to a minimum, or non-existent rate.
There are, however, a few ways to ensureH2SO4 stays safely stored:
Sulfuric acid is a strong acid and when in contact with the skin it can cause severe burns and damage, the acid is therefore also harmful to the environment, for example if it gets into ground water. Now, having established the dangers of sulfuric acid, we can see the importance of keeping this acid well stored in industrial process as the acid is in massive quantities. Over the last year there have been many various accidents involving sulfuric acid spillages and release, so clearly there are still some problems solved to ensure accidents are kept to a minimum, or non-existent rate.
There are, however, a few ways to ensureH2SO4 stays safely stored:
- Corrosion control: which can be through methods of hydrogen grooving and boundary layer corrosion. However these methods are quite dangerous as they form hydrogen gas, which is flammable and can cause tank explosions and thus spillage of H2SO4.
- Inspection checks: that are frequent enough to state the tank in which the H2SO4 is contained is the standard. However, switching between tanks may also cause potential leakage.
- Secondary containment: can be used, from my understanding, as a back-up measure in the case of a spillage/leak by somehow surrounding the main tank containing the H2SO4.
- Health and safety: is also vital for the environment and workers, so everyone must be aware of the issues with H2SO4 and precautions to maintain minimal risk
… Of course there are many more ways and methods of ensuring safe storage of sulfuric acid, however these were the main ones I understood. I think this is important in chemical engineering as chemical engineers also have to be cautious to the chemicals that will be in systems they create and they have to be aware of how to minimise the potential environmental and human damage of industrial processes.
Sources Used:
[1]http://www.chemengonline.com/safety-sulfuric-acid-storage-tanks/?pagenum=1
[2]http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/techmanual/Plant_Safety/safety_accidents.htm
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