biogas fireball in Riedlingen: awesome power of fermentation
The cows on the Swabian Alb are peaceful. Early on Sunday morning of 16 December 2007, they were in their warm houses, dreaming of green pastures innocent. Meanwhile, their gardens in feces collected Riedlingen-Daugendorf in about 22 m high and 17 m thick large tank of the biogas plant, called fermenters. The system has cost about € 3 million.
was at 4 clock in the morning spotted a fire on the tank ball. The screw-enamel steel plates were torn down and 4,100 cubic meters of diluted manure poured tsunami-like of all that stood in the way. Weighing a ton machine part was washed away 50 m wide. Heavy construction equipment were damaged.
Fortunately no persons were present. Otherwise they would have gotten more than a few splashes. 4.18 to clock the fire department was alerted Riedlingen. Before long they arrived with other brigades and emergency services, and examined with gas detection equipment, the brown mass that probably could go out of their even more evil. Quickly build a light tower was erected. After daybreak, a police helicopter circled and photographed the wreckage and the manure lagoon. He reached up to 200 m far from the plant site. With the-art laser equipment was surveyed the crash site. The number of forces is said to have stood at just under one hundredth
The course of the wreck is in the media, based to witness and expert testimony, described in part contradictory. Accordingly, on Thursday last gas measurements were made, the results "were fine g. This implies that the tank was filled and the fermentation was already running. Measurements were made of 52% methane and about 0.5% oxygen in the biogas, a mixture that is not explosive. On Friday, the plant was officially in the test run. Apparently there was no more check the gas composition, although the fermentation was already more than a day. On Saturday, an electrician and a mechanic who worked on the system and your settings. To 19 clock they then leave with one of the 13 farmers, the plant operator. Also here is nothing known by another gas measurement. The plant should be running at the time of the accident is fully automatic. The next gas measurement was then mentioned on Sunday morning by the fire in the open instead.
In expert circles, it means that may be the start of a fermenter, a critical stage. We ask ourselves: Why did the technician, the gas composition in this phase is no longer measured? them about the sampling was too dangerous?
The experts were hurrying after the accident at first a press conference. Anton "Toni g Rupert Baumann Wangen im Allgäu stresses that there can be no explosion in a fermenter, but at a deflagration, the slower go. He is a member of the cooperative biogas advice "fermenter Doctor g. When building up pressure in a fermenter, it burst. However, the effects were the same as an explosion. He was a mystery how this accident could have happened. Biogas plants are "basically not dangerous g. Baumann claims to have" looked after well over 100 g of biogas plants during the critical start-up and would like to express not yet on the possible cause of the accident. It had the report of the expert to be expected. It should be clarified whether and how a spark - it needed a spark of over 700 degrees C - for example by aufeinanderreibende metal parts or a torn cable may have been incurred.
The damage of the explosion, which was no explosion, is estimated at 1.5 to 2 million €. Close to the sign "Energy Farm - Here is the biogas plant of Riedlingen GmbH & Co. KG g intact RECOURSE, it has received only a few brown spots. The Energy Farm operators there is grandfathering, ie, they must build the plant in the approved scope again. For this case there is some good advice from Austria: In order to minimize the risk of such accidents, Franz Kirchmeyr ARGE Compost & Biogas from Austria recommends the fermenter prior to first boot with a non-explosive Inert gas fill.
as an expert, Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang H. Stachowitz - publicly appointed and sworn expert for biogas plants etc. - ordered. He writes on his website:
"We were on 27 and 28 December 2007, place, and convinced us of the damage pattern and the possible causes such damages. Signs of an explosion and / or prolonged (> sec - range) "fire / smoke, we have not been determined. It is our opinion there are many similarities to the damage of the ZD Deiderode MBA from January 2005, where we were also involved as the cause Sachverstänige determination. After consultation with the competent CID Biberach and the LKA will be published in January, then probably an official report on the causes, timing and consequences. g
Stachowitz added later:
"We want to inform you in this way that the" rumors g to an explosion caused the injury / accident on the BGA Riedlingen before Christmas 2007 are not based on the encountered reality.
As mandated experts - Office could convince us of the spot of the cause and the effect of the criminal police and the LKA and other SVs.
The current investigation may we currently only say that there are many similarities to the MBA damage are on the ZD Deiderode the as-nds in Göttingen. There we were one of the designated SV - Offices for damage assessment. g
Our opinion: That was fast but this time, Mr. Stachowitz. To find out that the MBA Deiderode did not explode, you have at least taken nearly two years without identifying the cause of accident eventually (as reported in November 2007). It urges upon us the suspicion that you provide in the service of insurance is not all that you have found your obvious expertise available. Sworn or not, is, there is between a loss adjuster (Insurance), the injured person (owner / operator) and the Anlagenerrrichter always a conflict of interest in case of accident. During our research, we always come back to the detachment of an explosion. We ask: Should the insurance not pay if there was no explosion and no fire? "Explosion g" g deflagration or not, we make the following consideration: How likely is it that an eyewitness was mistaken in Riedlingen deep black night with a fireball? Did she hallucinating? Otherwise, we trust but just the reports of firefighters Riedlingen and Biberach. Then it was a "serious explosion g.
The report of the police and the prosecutor Biberach Ravensburg of 9 January 2008 was clearly in the statement, but only partially helpful. The officials have determined that sabotage / a crime must be excluded as a cause of injury. They want to examine documents in the coming weeks on the sinking in Deiderode.
Interestingly, we find the report of the daily paper of 20 Mühlacker December 2007 during the commissioning of the biogas plant Mühlacker near Pforzheim. The Journal writes:
was "at yesterday's meeting in the biomethane plant accident in the Riedlingen - the MT reported in detail - also talk about. In the meantime, was the cause of the accident is known, said yesterday in the woods fields. Consequently, there were in the fermenter a vacuum and as a result, an implosion. g
The source of this knowledge is not mentioned. However, this scenario seems plausible: by a leak or an open drain valve incorrectly escapes fermentation substrate from the fermenter. In the gas chamber creates a vacuum that sucks the roof to bursting inside. The collapse of a spark caused by a broken power line or by another striking steel parts. A sub-variant of this scenario would be that the roof does not yield at first, but only becomes leaky and outdoor air is drawn into the fermentation chamber. Upon reaching an explosive gas mixture would have to be a thermal or electrical Source of ignition have been involved. That would then have two failures and statistically less likely unless they are causally related. We are focused on whether the expert is Stachowitz have explored in two years. By the way: According to rough calculation, the surface load on the bottom plate was about 20 t / m2. Meanwhile
comes on when residents of other biogas plants unrest, so in small Sachsenheim north of Stuttgart. A neighbor of the biogas plant, which has followed the news about the disaster in Riedlingen said, in December 2007, the Stuttgarter Zeitung: "We live here in the middle of the kill zone." His house is located 40 meters according to their own statement of the European Academy of Saxony.
How fear of death feels like, has experienced a security guard for the MBA accident in Göttingen-Deiderode. The county fire association Göttingen wrote on 21 January 2006 at his website:
"misfortune in Deiderode: high Damage (21.01.2006)
are on Saturday morning to 5.40 clock on the grounds of the high waste disposal association in Lower Saxony Deiderode two approximately 20-meter fermentation vessels (called fermentation) shattered . A fermenter is a bioreactor in which specially bred microorganisms or cells under the most optimal conditions are cultivated in a nutrient medium to either the cells themselves, parts of them or one of its metabolites to win (source: wikipedia.de ).
A security guard of a foreign company was sitting in the wax container about 30 yards away from the fermenters when he heard a loud noise. He looked out the window and 4.5 million liters of fermentation sludge and 2.5 million liters of rain water shot up to him - like an avalanche. "I just kept still on the door frame," the guard said. Miraculously, he is not injured. A neighbor container is carried along. Also the car is dragged several meters by the floods. The sinking pool could trap the masses only in part.
residents from Deiderode other hand report of a loud bang. What was the exact cause of the rupture of the digester, is still unknown. Even in 150 meters thick lying rocks, probably of walls. g
The Swabian newspaper is not impressed by the lean of news reports and not dig up the MBA crashed through in Göttingen. On 31 December 2007, the newspaper writes:
"Yes, we came to the residence of Deiderode on the night of 21 January 2006 at an accident," said Mark Rybarczyk, deputy manager of the waste disposal association southern Lower Saxony. "A fermenter wrecked shortly after commissioning. Two other enzymes and other parts of the bio-mechanical waste treatment plant had to have been destroyed. The damage lies approximately ten Million €.
"However, there was no explosion at us," said Rybak. Possible factors he could not open because of a procedure and a settlement agreement with a mechanical engineering company based in Bremen, which had designed the system, say nothing. "Just this: It does not have the background and not located on the process technology," said the Deputy Leader. But as far as he was informed there had been in the fermenter in a Deiderode identical fermenter in Daugendorf: enameled steel panels, bolted double row. Questions about static he could not answer from the previously mentioned reasons but also so Rybarczyk. "However, I would like to refer that to rebuild our plant another subcontractor was responsible. The new digester is now a fully welded steel tank. "
" Our tank was pressure tested, "the statement by Günther Fuchshuber is to Daugendorf fermenter. The engineer is the director of the Austrian company GLS tanks, the manufacturer of the crashed fermenter in Daugendorf. A company that was until 2006 under the name Wolf Email GmbH to the Austrian Wolf System Group. According to Mark Rybarczyk Wolf Email built as a subcontractor to the fermenter in Deiderode. Guenther Fuchs Huber was up for sale by Wolf email there as manager.
" The sale added by Wolf email not to do with Deiderode "said Franz Reidlbacher, Managing Director Austria Wolf system. There would have been much earlier intention to sell. It was a purely strategic decision.
base plate exposed
" Sure, there are at first appear a few matches between Deiderode and the system at Riedlingen. so Fuchshuber Both plants were finally been in a critical phase of operations, but when asked who had taken off in the fermenter in Daugendorf the statics, is his comment. "I have the name the judicial police reported. Next I will say nothing. "And refers to other Components, which in his opinion identical should have been in Deiderode and Daugendorf.
Even the detectives on the ground wanted to comment on Friday not to question the structural analysis. At the accident site, the concrete floor slab, the foundation of the fermenter, with the help of volunteers exposed firefighters Riedlingen and examined by experts from the police. g
There is bolted and welded steel tanks for fermentation. not mentioned in this context, concrete tanks, as they are built into the MBA Hannover. The IGW Witzenhausen engineering community has the latter and enamel-steel tanks on its website documented (see links below).
The IGW Witzenhausen and the Institute have in the past year a special topic the biogas investigated: Is it worth the fermentation of organic waste? In July 2007 the two institutions, the "Economic evaluation of composting systems with regard to the integration of an anaerobic stage g as Vorschaltanlage have published.
On page 26, the experts draw the following conclusion:
"As the observations show the integration of a digestion step as Vorschaltanlage in composting plants has become much more interesting. Depending on the technology and use concept on the basis of the EEG can be achieved per tonne of organic waste, including possible bonuses revenues of 20 € to 35 €. The proceeds are, however, additional investment or Set operating costs compared with that in general not sufficient for an efficient, compared to composting exclusive, cost-neutral operation g.
hot, are usually on it must be paid for the additional fermentation of organic waste. Most of the digestion plants in Germany is concerned not because they are charged with this grown, renewable raw materials (energy crops). Here, the calculation looks different. According to the Biogas Association, there were as at 15th January 2008 over 3700 installed biogas plants in Germany. This organization shall notify the occasion with its annual meeting. The total number of differentiated but not since the digestate (energy crops, Biowaste, MBA / household waste).
Sources:
http://www.suedwest-aktiv.de/region/albbote/rundschau_von_der_alb/3291932/artikel.php?SWAID=fce116c24dc4f2ba8d9fe0c512a92f23
http://www.szon.de/news/ wirimsueden/land/200712180999.html? _from http://www.szon.de/lokales/riedlingen = rss
http://www.szon.de/lokales/riedlingen/riedlingen/200712180484.html
/ riedlingen/200712180484.html? apage = 1 & SZONSID = 7b4a8c7f2679e43c69606d6af122d15c
http://www.bauernzeitung.at/?id=2500% 2C27849% 2C% 2C http://www.feuerwehr-riedlingen
. de /
http://www.feuerwehr-biberach.de/
http://www.fermenterdoktor.de/
http://www.kompost-biogas.info/
http://www.das-ib.de/sachverst.htm
http://www.polizei-biberach.de/servlet/PB/menu/1248678/index.html?ROOT=1123013
http://www.muehlacker.de/mt/artikel.php?p=2007/12/20/1/
http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/detail.php/1593926
http://www.kfv-goe.de/
http://www.szon.de/lokales/riedlingen/riedlingen/200712310433.html
http://www.igw-witzenhausen.de/referenzsuche_detail.php?ID=42
http://www.igw-witzenhausen.de/referenzsuche_detail.php?ID=28
http://www.igw-witzenhausen.de/downloads.html
http://www.biogastagung.org/de/press/ars12/ars25/?arspageid=25.pm.4073
Here still an unscientific approach to Riedlinger accident. What form does
Kuhkacke at best when they can freely chosen?
supported by gravity, of course, the shape of a pancake! Sometimes he gets a little bigger.
More news in brief:
from the insolvency of MBA-plant manufacturer Horstmann 1,000 items were auctioned. According to the receiver rack is in the "small stuff g.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:w4EZ1DtPtSoJ:www.vlothoer-anzeiger.de/va/lokales/bad_oeynhausen/% 3fsid% 3D6e7bcfdd8f720e649c28d288c30bf5fe% 26cnt% 3D2008673 + horstmann + auction + Hammer & hl = en & ct = clnk & cd = 2 & gl = de &
http://www.vlothoer-anzeiger.de/va/lokales/bad_oeynhausen/?cnt=2014488
T-Plus sends garbage, which closed the book and MBA Heilbronn now can not hold more, on trips: Leuna MVA, MVA Dusseldorf, Mannheim MVA, MVA Stuttgart:
http://www.ludwigsburger-kreiszeitung.de/index/LKZPortal/Lokalnachrichten.html?arid=5634
Up to 10,000 t Luebeck MBT-waste is placed for 1.5 million € to Salzgitter. 500,000 euros of which wants to bring back the city of Luebeck MBT plant Bauer Haase.
http://www.ln-online.de/lokales/2263331
http://www.newsclick.de/index.jsp/menuid/2163/artid/7641837
The MBA Linkenbach at Neuwied stinks Since March 2007, the residents say:
http://www.recyclingmagazin.de/rm/news_detail.asp?ID=8366&SID=5554246624970200&NS=1
Lahn-Dill-Kreis, the MBA will not have given Aßlar:
http://www.lahn-dill-kreis.de/presse/ldk_presse_artikel_57237.html wishes
A good year 2008, you
Henriette Franke
for author's collective waste management criticism
