Process Puzzler
One of our welders got hurt cutting into a carbon steel header for a chilled brine line to install another chiller in the closed-loop system. He purged the piping but not the room. An invisible gas ignited from his torch. Our plant environment contains chlorine and other corrosives. What was source of the gas? How can we prevent future accidents and what do we need to change in the system to avoid such safety problems?

Send us your comments, suggestions or solutions for this question by November 6, 2009. We’ll include as many of them as possible in the December 2009 issue and all on ChemicalProcessing.com. Send visuals — a sketch is fine. E-mail us at ProcessPuzzler@putman.net or mail to Process Puzzler, Chemical Processing, 555 W. Pierce Road, Suite 301, Itasca, IL 60143. Fax: (630) 467-1120. Please include your name, title, location and company affiliation in the response.

And, of course, if you have a process problem you’d like to pose to our readers, send it along and we’ll be pleased to consider it for publication.