Re: RE: EPA Reefs Reefers

Originally Posted by
Richard

Originally Posted by
GaryP
We used about 40,000 lb. of carbon every couple of months. I had to make the rounds of a few LFS to buy that much!

I just want to know if you can get that job back. If so I'll be happy to keep stocked up on Black Diamond for ya ;) .
Actually I contracted it out a company that recyled the carbon. We used 40 cubic yard containers of carbon to hook up to our air vent system so that in case of an emergency shutdown benzene would be scrubbed from the exhaust gas. Regulations required that there be a back up system so we actually had two of these 40 yard containers hooked up in series so that if there was a break through of the first one, the second one would catch it. I also had some "smaller" 1000 and 2000 lb. containers we used to vent equipment for maintenance work. All of this carbon was recycled. When it was spent, it was sent to a plant in Arizona where they baked it and cooked off the organics, similar to the way people reuse carbon by baking it in an oven. It was basically the same pellatized carbon that we use in aquariums and was made from coconut shell except its pore size was better suited for vapor phase instead of the larger pore size we use for water phase. I paid around a $1/lb. for it but that included transportation, labor and the recycling cost. It was all done on a turn key basis. That was a lot cheaper than the fine we would have gotten if we had an accidental release of benzene. Anything more than 10 lb. of benzene release was considered a reportable event. If we had an emergency shutdown that amount would be released in 8 minutes. We had drills with guys flying through the plant on bicycles to get to the carbon units in time to get the valves opened within 8 minutes to prevent a reportable release of benzene.
Gary
125 SPS, 75 gal. LPS/softie reef, 9 gal. Nano