Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 00:36:04 +0800
Reply-To: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: Tan Khai Seng <khaiseng**At_Symbol_Here**NUS.EDU.SG>
Subject: Emergency purge mode for fumehood

Hi everyone 

for some fumehood, especially the VAV fumehoods, they come with an 
emergency purge button which is supposed to increase the exhaust rate in 
the event of a spillage. 

I have just encounter an incident where a distillation was wrongly set 
up, the set up went flying after 2 hours and toluene was spead all over 
the fumehood. The researcher instinctively close the sash fully and 
activate the emergency purge mode. by then, the toluene had ignited and 
the activation of the purge mode actually fanned the fire. the fire was 
big enough to melt the flexible duct connecting the fumehood to the 
exhaust duct. the researcher was able to contain the fire within the 
fumehood and extinguish it with the fire extinguisher.

we are debating over the question of whether to activate or not to 
activate the emergency purge button.

 

any advise?

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