There has of course been a long standing “wind” problem at the much troubled Trinity Street factory. Bad gas – or more succinctly Toxic gas appears to have a nasty historic habit of escaping from the Albright anus of PO BOX 80. I detailed one such incident from 1969 involving phosphine release at this site.
This article from 27 June 1988 from The Sandwell Evening Mail reveals more troubling information about phosphine gas escaping. This was put down to “a pressure surge in a reactor” which allowed the gas to escape, instantly catching fire when exposed to air.
There are some observations to be made about this. This is the same P1 production plant that resulted in the 2009 uncontrolled release of phosphine gas which led to a far more serious incident. There is absolutely no mention at all of this 1988 incident in the official HSE report and investigation where Rhodia’s cut and shut “rodder” assembly failed, as explained below.
One wonders on how many occasions before this event that there had been “pressure surges” in this apparatus, and why management had not acted upon it, or even if they had covered them up when their bonuses were directly linked to environmental and safety performances? 😕
Mention of the exact incident which appears to have occurred below is even mentioned in the 1980 planning application Ref DC/10316 for the P1 plant.
“A water seal tank , 0.6m3 capacity , serves both the convertor and the reactor to prevent overpressurisation of the equipment. This occurrence should be rare. If it does happen, phosphine would be emitted at this point where it would be expected to catch fire.”
I have looked at the historic production of phosphine and the installation of this 1st plant HERE.
The second is that Solvay applied for an increase in pressure of phosphine gas in their hazardous substance consent HS/040 which appears to have been shelved?
Thirdly this is one of MANY incidents under the stewardship of “Dr” Peter Bloore, and as will be revealed in several future posts, his management during his time as works manager at Trinity Street was an absolute catalogue of environmental disasters and health and safety shams.
Below, from evidence presented by Rhodia to the HSE regards the Albright and Wilson built phosphine no 1 plant fire 21 years later. YOU BLOODY LIAR BLOORE! But just a reflection of the company he worked for.
