At both ends of the skid were the copper cathodes,
connected by a large collection of about 50 cables,
2" in diameter. These power cables transmitted the
power from the rectifier room where AC was
converted to DC. No small battery here: I remember
80,000 Amperes at 550 volts showing on the control panel. This was for the cells
only, not the entire plant or plant site! At the time I was there, in the 1970’s, Dow
Chemical was the 3rd largest power consumer in the province, only Edmonton and
Calgary used more. When more chlorine production was required, it was a simple
matter of turning the big black dial on the control panel that changed the current flow.
More current caused more electrolysis which created more product.
The cells are not some puny little
things the size of a desk. No, these
behemoths are 12 feet by 12 feet
square, by 2 feet wide, and that’s just
ONE cell! Forty of these together
make up a skid. The tops and bottoms are 12 inch thick concrete and the sides
something like 8 inches thick. Inside each cell is a metal screen, coated with paste
asbestos, and inside the screen was a large 1" thick graphite block (fluffy asbestos
that looks like the loose, gray coloured, cellulose insulation in house attics, is like
papier-mâché when it gets wet. It makes a nice thick paste.) These are the anodes of
what can best be described as a big battery in reverse. Forty of these cells are pushed
together, sealed with big gobs of sticky black "mastic", a cross between rubber and
home caulking. To keep this skid together, 4 of the longest bolts you could ever
imagine squeeze the 4 corners together. It’s like handling a very large Dagwood
sandwich, with your fingers representing the 4 clamps. It’s all put together
"Mechano-style". Think of one of those Betty Crocker square freezer cakes cut up into
1" slices and you basically have the layout and proportions of a skid. The small plant,
where I worked, had 5 of these skids in operation, with one always down for
maintenance or rebuild..
Getting back to this errant feeder, I had to get a
similar
piece of plastic tubing , remove the broken piece
with it’s
bushing and lock nut, and install these pieces on
the new
tube. Then, with 30 or 40 pounds of pressure
resisting my efforts to slip this nut back onto the
header,
I would get all wet again. Have you ever been
sprayed with a hose by your little brother and tried
NOT to
get wet by putting your hand in front of the nozzle that was pointed at you? That’s the
effect. Then I was really wet and salty, like sushi. Pickled sushi. I would finish my
sampling round before changing in case it happened again. Man, I just hated it when
that happened.
I had never worn a respirator before coming to Chlor-Alkali
and it required some practice. The part that was put in the
mouth fit in there like a hot-dog with edges: once it was in,
you had to wrap your lips around the edge of the tube.
Rookies like me had to use the nose clamp to make sure
we never breathed through the nose when in a gassy area,
but I just couldn’t get used to it. Eventually, after forgetting
the plug so many times, and then finding myself in a green
atmosphere (chlorine is green, and heavier than air)
breathing through my nose, I learned. Pavlov’s dog all over again.