Comparison of Water Curtain Effectiveness in the Elimination of Airborne Vapours of Ammonia, Acetone, and Low-Molecular Aliphatic Alcohols

Abstract

The paper presents results of comparative tests related to the effectiveness of water curtains in the elimination of airborne vapours of ammonia, acetone, and low-molecular aliphatic alcohols. The determined effectiveness of water curtains for acetone and methanol is by about half an order of magnitude smaller than for ammonia. An evident reduction in curtain effectiveness was recorded with an increase of the length of aliphatic chain of alcohols. Tests conducted for the four lightest representatives of primary alkanols point to an evident decrease in t1/2 for further representatives according to the equation t1/2 = 203.3N − 41.5. It was found that methanol is removed by the curtain in the shortest time from among the tested alcohols (t1/2 = 137 s) and 1-buthanol the most slowly (t1/2 = 782 s). The obtained results indicate the effectiveness of water curtains in incidents that comprise uncontrolled release of vapours of compounds being tested.

Keywords

• water curtains
• water curtains efficiency
• rescue operations efficiency
• industrial disasters
• uncontrolled releases of hazardous materials
• ammonia spills