Mega smoke cloud @ Sabic 01.12.08 (South-Limburg)

LimburgSpotter · Post by **LimburgSpotter** » 02 Dec 2008, 21:41

Some shots of the big smokecloud at Sabic..

sfeyenoord1 · Post by **sfeyenoord1** » 02 Dec 2008, 22:03

Wow, one huge flame!
Had to luck it up so for the ones who would like to know what happend, the dutch version:

Op het Chemelotterrein in Geleen werd maandagochtend flink gefakkeld. Een grote vlam produceerde een fikse rookwolk die tot in hartje Maastricht zichtbaar was. Sabic moest fakkelen nadat er kortsluiting ontstond in naftakraker-4.

Door de kortsluiting viel de koeling in de fabriek uit. Daarop schakelde het veiligheidsmechanisme de fabriek helemaal uit. "Direct wordt dan gestart met fakkelen om de restgassen in de kraker te verbranden. Dat is een standaardprocedure."

Volgens Sabic was er maandag meer sprake van rookontwikkeling, doordat nog geen stoom was toegevoegd aan de gassen. Tegen de middag was het merendeel van de gassen verbrand. Sabic verwacht de fabriek dinsdagochtend weer volledig is opgestart. Tot die tijd wordt er nog gefakkeld met twee kleinere grondfakkels.

Source: Limburger.nl

toppiero · Post by **toppiero** » 02 Dec 2008, 22:25

I seee in that cloud a KC135 NICE!

warthog64 · Post by **warthog64** » 03 Dec 2008, 16:11

and as usual,
the fire department has not found any harmful gases ......
yeah right!

SpotterNL · Post by **SpotterNL** » 03 Dec 2008, 16:46

warthog64 wrote:and as usual,
the fire department has not found any harmful gases ......
yeah right!

Actually, it's not that hard to imagine. What they do is split ('kraken') is crude oil (which is nothing more than very long strings of hydrocarbons) as to make them into shorter chains (such as propane, C3H8) which can be used as petrol, diesel, kerosene and many others. The parts that can not be used, and burned in this case consist of Carbon (C) and Hydrogen (H). The hydrogen burns clean (and forms water), the carbon in this case does not.

The yellow flame indicates that it's burned off at a fairly low temperature, and the black cloud indicates an incomplete burn. This means that the carbon does not all turn into Carbondioxin (CO2) but forms carbon practicles, known as Soot (roet in dutch). As long as it stays within the limits there are no health risks.

Redskin301 · Post by **Redskin301** » 03 Dec 2008, 18:14

Chemelot haha ^^

Burry · Post by **Burry** » 03 Dec 2008, 18:54

It´s always smoking there

jimmy van drunen · Post by **jimmy van drunen** » 05 Dec 2008, 12:47

toppiero wrote:I seee in that cloud a KC135 NICE!

Indeed, nice to see!!

Key · Post by **Key** » 05 Dec 2008, 13:20

Thanks, Limburg/Spotter/NL

for the photos and explanation. It's fascinating to see how the rising hot gases lead to the formation of an impressive cumulus.

Erik

Polecat · Post by **Polecat** » 05 Dec 2008, 19:08

toppiero wrote:I seee in that cloud a KC135 NICE!

I know KC's could smoke.. but this bad !!???

ebauer · Post by **ebauer** » 05 Dec 2008, 19:40

Wow, what an exciting pic! And nice to see a KC-135 flying in the neighbourhood of this artificial and impressive cumulus cloud also!

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