Explosions Due to Hydrogen and Hydrogen Sulfide Build-up
As paper mills have begun to close up their water systems and move toward zero effluent discharge, they are finding that closing a mill’s water system can lead to changes in a mill’s water chemistry. These can include a build-up of nutrients which can increase the amount of microbes in a mill’s system. In the absence of oxygen that might be found in tanks, chests, and pipes, anaerobic bacteria can thrive.
When certain types of anaerobic bacteria break down the organic material found in a mill, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen gases can be formed and released. One group of anaerobic bacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria or SRB, produce hydrogen sulfide gas as a byproduct of their metabolic process. Other anaerobic bacteria, including clostridia, produce hydrogen gas as a byproduct of their metabolic processes.
Both these gases, if present in sufficient amounts, can be a safety concern — particularly for explosions — in a paper mill. Monitoring for these gases can help detect harmful levels of the gases before incident occurs.
RPTA issued Technical Bulletin 16, Hydrogen and Hydrogen Sulfide Gases, which provides guidance on monitoring for these gases.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a Bulletin that provides guidance on hot work in such areas.
LATEST NEWS
Industry Benchmarking Survey
The 2025 Profile Study will be initiated this December for first-quarter ’25 sampling. Past Survey reports can be accessed at this member-only page.
2024 Fall Roundtable
On October 16 and 17, we held our highly-rated RPTA Fall Roundtable on Paper Machine Roll Design and Operation, in Appleton, Wisconsin. The slides from our four-hour technical seminar on various types of rolls and press optimization are available at this RPTA members only site, along with materials from other past RPTA educational events. The Roundtable also included tours of two Andritz roll facilities.
UPCOMING EVENTS
2025 Winter Webinar
On January 22nd, we will hold a webinar on Recovered Fiber Grades & Quality. Shawn State, President of Pratt Recycling at Pratt Industries, will discuss recovered fiber grades and quality trends. He will be followed by Pat McEnroe, Product Group Director at Kadant Black Clawson, who will discuss process strategies to deal with contaminants in recovered fiber sources.
2025 Production-Technical Seminar
The event is May 4-7, 2025, at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
This year, the RPTA Seminar will be more integrated with the TAPPICon Conference. RPTA members will register through RPTA and your registration will include all TAPPICon sessions and events, at a substantial savings over past years’ registration fees.
RPTA will still recruit presentations on topics of current interest to our members: Safer Operations, Product Strength Improvement Methods; and Waste Reduction. In addition, RPTA will host a two-hour mini-course on paper machine wet end chemistry, provided by a well-respected expert.