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Fire in a 55-Gallon Drum of a Dry-Cleaning Chemical

A 55-gallon steel drum containing sodium hydrosulfite ignited and generated a sulfur dioxide plume which extended over many blocks of an industrial/residential area of Berkeley, California. Sodium hydrosulfite is a solid granular material used in the dry cleaning industry and is highly reactive with water and air. APTECH was hired to evaluate this event from a technical point of view, to determine whether a "fire" had occurred in the usual sense of the word. This was relevant to the question of insurance coverage. We performed a detailed investigation of the chemistry of sodium hydrosulfite decomposition and ignition, including combustion, heat transfer, and plume analyses.

Satish Almaula		Plant failure and root cause analysis; process and design engineering analysis; process technology development and testing; plant engineering, operations, maintenance and safety management; plant and process control system management.

Kimble Clark, Ph.D.		Failure analysis, heat transfer & thermodynamics, process plant equipment failures & explosions, fuel science, combustion, industrial fires and explosions.

Steven Kohan, Ph.D.		Chemical engineering, refinery processes, toxic fume generation.

Richard Schreiber, P.E.		Machinery and mechanical device failure analysis, mechanical testing, combustion and heat transfer, industrial fires and explosions, gas appliances.