Methane Gas Explosion at Kansas City Wastewater Treatment Plant

According to a recent newsletter, methane buildup caused explosion and broke off the door off at Kansas City wastewater treatment plant.
( www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2018/01...&utm_campaign=180115 ).

A gas buildup at the Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Kansas City, Missouri, recently caused an explosion that required the assistance of firefighters. Fire officials said a methane buildup caused the rear door of the building to explode, and part of the building collapsed.

It is surprising why such things are happening in United States. These incidents are typical of developing countries, where people have low knowledge, and are careless. Such incidents in US are surprising. This is the reason, why I don’t prefer anaerobic systems.

F H Mughal

Hi, F H Mughal,
For such a respected platform its not appropriate to stereotype and demean people by claiming
everyone in developing country has low knowledge and careless. That is a baseless assumption .
Lets maintain the professionalism of this site

Dear Peter,

Thanks a lot for your comment which I agree with. Generalisations are indeed dangerous! At the same time I know that Mughal didn't mean it in a nasty. I think he was referring to general differences in workplace health and safety enforcement standards, which do exist between different countries. And I think he was mainly expressing his surprise that such an accident could have happened in a very well regulated country like the United States.

Accidents do happen though, with any technology and anywhere. (did you read about that new bridge that collapsed in Florida recently ( edition.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/miami-bridge-collapse/index.html ) - even something as "simple" as a new pedestrian bridge can go horribly wrong).

And I agree with Mughal that the potential for explosions is a serious issue with anaerobic digestion plants but I would say overall their benefits of green energy production (biogas) and stabilisation of organic matter do outweigh these risks.

Regards,
Elisabeth

P.S. Good articles on biogas and anaerobic digestions here on Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_digestion