Explosion at Lincolnshire

[Max_Vino]

You probably have already seen this as it is a year old but it bears repeating. This is about the tragic explosion in Boston, Lincolnshire which killed 5 and seriously injured another. The speculation is that they were making Vodka. The youtube presentation is on distillation safety. He speculates that they may have failed to turn on their condenser. In this video he explains what happens when alcohol vapor is concentrated in a closed room.

This leads to my first two rules of distillation safety.

1) Always distill outside. If you absolute have to distill indoors make sure you have plenty of forced ventilation.

2) Avoid an open flame i.e. propane or lighting up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX5ZTieAUXI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
And the news reports:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... vodka.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Cheers,
Max

[Ayay]

Very interesting! It appears there was sufficient explosion to buckle the roll a door and smash things inside, but also a fire. I wonder what killed the unfortunate victims...the explosion, asphixiation, or fire?

Yes, stillin indoors requires:
1. 100% no leaks of gasses of any kind,
2. 100% being there and vigilant,
3. Having firefighting resourses on hand.

Forced ventilation can be activated immediately a leak is detected, and this can only happen if #2 is present and #1 is broken.
Having forced ventilation as a profilactic may lead to relaxing of #1 and #2.