New Solution to Treat Chlorine Gas Vent Releases

Chlorination has played a significant role in the disinfection of water and wastewater treatment for 100 years. This effective treatment method is proven, reliable and very economically priced to meet varying application needs.  Safety concerns associated with the use of gaseous chlorine require attentive handling procedures, including the use of chlorine gas scrubbers and gas supply shut-off systems.

Gaseous chlorine is typically furnished in 150-pound, one-ton and railcar configurations and accompanying gas feed systems can be cylinder-, ton-, wall- or floor-mounted depending on the application. The use of chlorine gas is regulated by local, state and federal code restrictions against exhausting chlorine fumes outside a building. Vacuum regulators in both cylinder- and ton-mounted arrangements have occasional chlorine gas vent releases that may accompany fouled vacuum regulator inlet valves and chlorine container changeovers. If the vacuum regulator vent must be contained within the chlorine room, it can cause nuisance tripping of chlorine room air sensor alarms and can lead to chlorine-related acid corrosion in the building.

Recent product developments have resulted in the commercial availability of systems designed to neutralize the chlorine releases from a vacuum regulator vent and neutralize the releases with the use of scrubber media. One such product is the Capital Controls® VEGA™ Vent Exhaust Gas Arrestor, designed for use on the vacuum regulator vent line.

Vent Exhaust Gas Arrestor
The Capital Controls® VEGA™ is a 5-gallon (18.9 liters) HDPE disposable container of chemically impregnated alumina oxide 4 mm spherical beads designed to react on contact to convert the chlorine gas vent releases to clean air and into a harmless landfill-disposable salt. The solid reaction products are locked in the ceramic bead. The alumina oxide media is also used in commercially available large scale chlorine dry scrubbers. Unlike carbon-based media used for the same purpose which can have high heats of reaction, the ceramic–coated media carries no fear of combustion and does not require neutralization prior to disposal.

As designed, the vent exhaust gas arrestor has less pressure loss than an equal length of vent tubing. Two vent exhaust gas arrestor arrangements are typically recommended; single and stacked. At least one vent exhaust gas arrestor system is recommended per vacuum regulator vent. The manifolding of two or more vacuum regulator vents to a single vent exhaust gas arrestor is discouraged due to back pressure concerns.

The vent exhaust gas arrestor is equipped with inlet and outlet chlorine colorimetric indicator strips, which change from white to yellow when exposed to chlorine gas. The inlet (bottom) will turn yellow during normal operation and does not indicate unit exhaustion. The outlet (top) will turn yellow when the unit is exhausted, indicating that replacement is needed. Tests have shown that under sporadic venting conditions a vent exhaust gas arrestor system should last at least one year before replacement is required. While it is recommended to consult federal, state and local landfill disposal laws and regulations to determine proper disposal procedures, in most cases the media is considered non-hazardous and landfill-disposable.

For more information, e-mail info@severntrentservices.com.

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