Effectiveness of water spray mitigation systems for accidental releases of hydrogen fluoride

Technical Report · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5608942· OSTI ID:5608942

Holve, D. J.; Harvill, T. L. ^[1]

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1. INSITEC, San Ramon, CA (USA)

Accidental release of pressurized, superheated hydrogen fluoride (HF) can result in initially dense clouds which will typically contain a mixture of HF vapor, aerosol, and droplets. Previous experiments were performed by Amoco Oil Company and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (the Goldfish series in 1986) to study atmospheric dispersion of these HF clouds. The present study examines the effect of water application on the mitigation of these clouds. To assess the effectiveness of water application (via either sprays or monitor) in mitigating HF clouds two series of tests were conducted in separate flow chambers. Bench scale experiments identified key variables for testing in a larger facility. The larger scale field tests demonstrated that HF releases can be mitigated with water. The impact of numerous design variables on mitigation effectiveness has also been quantified. HF removal efficiencies of 25 to 90+% have been demonstrated at water to HF liquid rates of 6/1 to 40/1 and higher. 8 refs., 69 figs., 50 tabs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA); INSITEC, San Ramon, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5608942
• Report Number(s): UCRL-21214-Vol.5; ON: DE90001098
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603 -- Materials-- Properties
500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOLS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CALIBRATION
COLLOIDS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
DATA ACQUISITION
DIAGRAMS
DISPERSIONS
EFFICIENCY
ENGINEERING DRAWINGS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOWSHEETS
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
INORGANIC ACIDS
MASS TRANSFER
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MITIGATION
NOZZLES
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE SIZE
PLUMES
SCRUBBING
SIMULATION
SIZE
SOLS
SPRAYS
VELOCITY
WATER