[CCoE Notice] FW: Chlorine

[Perlowski, Ken]

Please see below.  Has anyone been using or storing chlorine gas in the Building 579 – Engineering 1, especially the ground floor?  We need to identify the source and the distribution of gas.

Ken Perlowski

From: Harold, Michael P
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 9:13 AM
To: Perlowski, Ken
Cc: Rifai, Hanadi S; Donnelly, Vincent M
Subject: FW: Chlorine

Ken, please see findings below.  It seems that the chlorine is coming from an unknown source.  The readings are uniform throughout the basement.

Note this is not something to dismiss as the threshold limiting value for chlorine is 0.5 ppm

https://www.mathesongas.com/pdfs/products/threshold-limit-values-%28tlv%29.pdf

My suggestion is that Environmental Health and Safety do a thorough study of the situation.

Thanks,

Mike

From: Donnelly, Vincent M
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 8:14 AM
To: Harold, Michael P
Subject: Fwd: Chlorine



Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:
From: "Donnelly, Vincent M" <vmdonnel at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:vmdonnel at Central.UH.EDU>>
Date: July 15, 2014 at 8:13:00 AM CDT
To: "Samara, Vladimir" <vsamara at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:vsamara at Central.UH.EDU>>
Cc: "Inyang, Otu" <oinyang at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:oinyang at Central.UH.EDU>>, "Economou, Demetre J" <chee1m5 at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:chee1m5 at Central.UH.EDU>>, "Weed, Anna-Marie Karen" <anna-marie.weed at email.wsu.edu<mailto:anna-marie.weed at email.wsu.edu>>, "Tremont, Joe" <JLTremont at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:JLTremont at Central.UH.EDU>>, "Greff, Reggie" <rmgreff at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:rmgreff at Central.UH.EDU>>, Sanbir Kaler <sanbir_kaler at yahoo.com<mailto:sanbir_kaler at yahoo.com>>
Subject: Re: Chlorine
Otu

We only have one chlorine cylinder and it is already isolated in a vented gas cabinet. If we put the sensor next to the cylinder the reading is lower than below the air conditioner. It is not coming from that cylinder.

I think someone needs to see where the air intake is for the basement air feed and test there.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 14, 2014, at 5:18 PM, "Samara, Vladimir" <vsamara at Central.UH.EDU<mailto:vsamara at Central.UH.EDU>> wrote:
We were moving the detectors around the lab and managed to set the alarm off (0.5 PPM) by placing it under the ventilation. Then we moved it away from the ventilation and it went back to 0.4 PPM. Then we put it back under the ventilation and it was back to 0.5 PPM so it seems that the source (in our lab) is the ventilation (even if it is not chlorine, something else is coming through the ventilation).

Regards,
Vladimir

From: Inyang, Otu
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 2:31 PM
To: Samara, Vladimir
Cc: Donnelly, Vincent M; Economou, Demetre J; Weed, Anna-Marie Karen; Tremont, Joe; Greff, Reggie
Subject: RE: Chlorine

Dear Vladimir,
I am waiting to see if there information on who could be using chlorine within the building. While we wait for that, please try to isolate the cylinders in the lab to see if you can find a small leak.

Regards,
Otu Inyang

From: Samara, Vladimir
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 1:39 PM
To: Inyang, Otu
Cc: Donnelly, Vincent M; Economou, Demetre J; Weed, Anna-Marie Karen
Subject: Chlorine

Hi Otu,
This morning Cl2 concentration in the lab and my office (closed) was again 0.5 PPM (with average over night of 0.4 PPM). Since then we kept open the door and it stabilized at 0.4 PPM. In meantime I measured the concentration around and found that in the main hallway (between the labs) it is 0.4 PPM while in the hallway outside (the open one) it is 0.3 PPM. Outside the building it is 0.0 (it takes about 3 minutes to drop from 0.4 to 0.0 PPM).

It seems that there is a very small leak (in the lab or somewhere else) but because we are the lowest level Cl2 get accumulated in our lab (and hallways) over weekend and overnight. During the day the concentration goes slightly down due opening the doors.

All our Cl2 sources were closed during the weekend and the main Cl2 pipeline was pressurized with N2 (and stayed at high pressure without a leak) so that couldn’t be the source of the leak.

Best regards,
Vladimir

Vladimir Samara, PhD
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Engineering Building 1, Room S-222
University of Houston
4800 Calhoun Rd.
Houston, TX 77204-4004

Tel: 713-743-4339     FAX: 713-743-4323
Email: vsamara at uh.edu<mailto:vsamara at uh.edu>

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