GRAETTINGER, Iowa — A Union Pacific train carrying a shipment of ethanol derailed near Graettinger early Friday morning. Twenty-seven of the 100 loaded tank cars in the train’s consist derailed and caught fire after impact. There were no …
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/03/10-ethanol-fire
Well, the good news is it is just ethanol and it will burn/flash off quickly….the bad news is that it is ethanol and it derailed and caught fire.
WOI-TV’s (Des Moines, ABC affiliate) 6pm report had a reporter still on the scene. She reported that a possible trestle collapse caused the derailment. She also reported that only 8 or 9 cars were burning, that 74 cars had been detached and pulled away from the scene. So 27 cars were left, but not all may be derailed.
WOI has not yet placed the 6pm report on their website as I write this.
Jeff
The video that is being broadcast locally shows the 20-odd cars remaining at the site. Several are on their sides and probably burned out while the rest appear to be upright and still railed. A major fire was burning when the video was shot, and the authorities were standing back and watching it burn itself out.
Still supposedly burning at noon today, Saturday the 11th, according to national TV news…
Ethanol burns with a clear flame, which is why first responders are very cautious around the stuff. The flames visible in the photos are probably from burning paint.
The good news is that ethanol is totally biodegradable, that the fire is in the approximate heart of nowhere and that, so far, no injuries have been reported.
The bad news is that this incident will bring all the anti-everything-about-liquid-fuel agendaphiles swarming out of the woodwork. Watch for lots of overheated rhetoric on the green weenie sites.
Chuck (former USAF Disaster Control technician)
What’s worst of all is that reports say that these are all DOT-111s.
DOT 111’s never went anywhere.
A lot of the new crude oil tanks are all 111’s, just newer 111 models.
The media never reports the facts.
The 11 span,152’ timber pile trestle where this happened is all ashes by now.As the thing cools off, I suspect anything with broken steel (railcar/mechanical or track)will be looked at thoroughly with Unca Pete pushing Hulcher to clear the site in order to clear the site for a replacement structure. At least the line is not cut off from the rest of the UP universe (Rake Sub is there with albeit lighter rail than the Estherville Sub.). Final cause most likely will be an opinion which will be open to question.
Wonder if there had been a WILDS detector on that train (they tend to roost on buffer cars) or the preceding one?
At the 6 minute mark it shows puddled metal - that must have been aluminum as it melts at a lower temperature than steel. What I can’t figure is where it came from? Only thing I can think of is the remains of the EOT as being nominally the only thing aluminum on a train that I can think of.
The aluminum is probably from a brake valve. As I recall NYAB valves were aluminum castings.
I can now see that there will probably be some discussion in the report about use/desirability/placement standard of inside steel guardrails.
(Do any of those guys own a dirty (used) hardhat/vest?)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think ethanol can be shipped
via pipeline.
I suspect you’re right, plus the fact that it might need to have to be a dedicated pipeline. Unlike oil pipelines, some of which can handle several products, I’d suspect that an ethanol pipeline would have to stay “clean.”
Too, does ethanol flow along the same lanes as oil products?
It ‘could’ be shipped via pipeline, but it would have to be a dedicated pipeline, not shared with oil products.
Interestingly, heavier alcohols (notably butanol) CAN be shipped as slugs in hydrocarbon pipelines, which makes them interesting as alternative fuels. There’s research into finding microorganisms that can produce commercial quantities via some analog of fermentation that can be made cost-effective at scale.
Ethanol can be shipped by pipeline, but there are many problems to its general application.
http://www.api.org/~/media/files/oil-and-natural-gas/pipeline/aopl_api_ethanol_transportation.pdf
The local news reported that the wrecked tankers have now been removed from the site. Additionally, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has caused 700 tons of ethanol contaminated soil to be trucked to a landfill where it will “quickly and naturally” breakdown and become harmless.
Of course, the reporter wasn’t sharp enough to ask or report on why if it is shortly to become harmless it had to be moved at all.
When you let a liquid contaminant sit in the ground, it will probably reach the water table and then contaminate it. If you dig up a volatile liquid like ethanol, much of it flashes off. It is further aerated and degraded when it is spread out in the landfill. Any residual that is left will be caught by the landfill under-liner.