Oxygen Boosting Safety

[randy88k5]

I am beginning to layout a newly acquired complete fill station, currently setup for continuous blending of nitrox and trimix with automatic cut-off solenoids on the O2. It included a few 3500 and 4500psi storage bottles, and a few 2400psi customer-owned O2 bottles. It also incorporates a Haskel for boosting O2 deco bottles.

My question is about layout for safety, since this will be in a garage attached to my house. Does anyone make any provisions in case of an O2 fire? Do you keep the O2 bottles away from any cascade bottles? O2 bottles far away from the mixing panel? I assume the point of most concern for an O2 fire would be the fill whip connection. Would a dedicated O2 whip located away from the mixing panel be prudent? Currrently it is right next to the air/nitrox whip.

I had tossed around the idea of locating the Haskel and O2 bottles in a small shed next to the garage.

Besides keeping everythng as clean as possible, and keep the fill rates very slow, does anyone else do any more protective measures?

 

[bakodiver391]

My experience is that adiabatic heating is one of the greatest concerns. So long runs or long fill whips that end with valves that can be mistakenly left closed while pressurizing from the other end are a no-no. Cleanliness is, of course, paramount. Operator skill in slowly opening valves and not allowing dead ends in long runs by forgetting to open terminal valves will go a long way to avoid oxygen fires.

 

[Whitrzac]

I don't think you have to worry about any of that if you have an O2 fire...
About the only thing you could do is shut off the tank quickly if youre right there, otherwise it probably won't be your problem to clean up the mess,

 

[tbone1004]

congratulations! I'm actually heading to Lynchburg on Sunday to pick up a compressor.

Regarding Oxygen safety, not much you can do other than build an explosion proof bunker to protect the house in the event of a fire. An AL30 caused a buddy to lose an arm and his whole house several years ago so it doesn't take much.
I would have a dedicated O2 whip though and try to keep that side separate.

The comment from @bakodiver391 is key though in making sure that you don't have really long runs with dead ends. You'd be shocked to see how O2 is handled in most of cave country or especially in fire departments and welding areas without incident though so the odds of worrying too much about it are pretty high.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

An AL30 caused a buddy to lose an arm and his whole house several years ago so it doesn't take much.

Link to thread or article? What happened?

Why does scuba correlate to advocating more safety than fire departments or welders? Is it because our tanks are drained so much more, or because the addition from different compressors? I have seen 1st hand what you mean... scuba guy treats it like it's an atom bomb (myself included to an extent)... welder just goes about his day, never gives it a 2nd thought.

 

[tbone1004]

Link to thread or article? What happened?

Why does scuba correlate to advocating more safety than fire departments or welders? Is it because our tanks are drained so much more, or because the addition from different compressors? I have seen 1st hand what you mean... scuba guy treats it like it's an atom bomb (myself included to an extent)... welder just goes about his day, never gives it a 2nd thought.

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world.dan.org

unsure why there is such a wide discrepancy, but there definitely is.

 

[broncobowsher]

When boosting O2 I slow down the booster by throttling back the drive gas. Run about half rated speed. Slower compression, less compression heat spikes. Take my time.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Trust But Verify

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world.dan.org

unsure why there is such a wide discrepancy, but there definitely is.

That is some very scary ****! I'm glad he's back to diving.

 

[Jimchris]

When boosting O2 I slow down the booster by throttling back the drive gas. Run about half rated speed. Slower compression, less compression heat spikes. Take my time.

I do the same. No quick way for an o2 fill. I typically fill at 30 psi/minute, and no greater than 60.

We also use a dedicated set of whips to and from the booster so it sees nothing but o2.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Dumb question.... is there anything out there that will stop at a certain psi?

Like for PP blending, mixing 50%, I need 1101psi O2. 30-60 psi a minute would be 18-36 min. Is there anything that would stop at 1101 available to the recreational mixer? Set it and work on something else?