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Usually there is a concrete/stainless steel pot in which the substrate is stirred with water and heated/as necessary.On top of that structure can be a lid, which is basically a concrete disk. Above that is a sort of plastic sheet bladder that collects the produced gas, storing it so it can burned at power demand peaks.(usually evenings). When it explodes, the first thing to go is this plastic bladder. A fireball, but besides the infrared heat damage, usually a controllable one. The problem starts with the pressure wave, if the pressure is enough, it lifts the concrete lid, which then comes down - wherever, causing havoc. If the tank is not a concrete basin, but freestanding, welded stainless steel.. it can pop. Means it opens at the seam, squeezing out the substrate - so a flood of what is essentially cowshit, which can be really problematic if reaches a river, covers everything. Insurance agents, police walking around making photos. Cleanup is in stages.
First you need to get the rest of the facility back online. Check other gassbladders for heat damage and shrapnel. Clear ways to the feeding trays, prevent ecological disasters by daming up the flood until the water seeps away leaving substrate.
Any excess product produced is flamed of with a torch for the duration. Then, shovels, plows and hoses. PS: Any large fermenting body produces gases that can ignite, so no smoking while cleaning up or working the fermenter. Thats right, breath, take it all in. |