“The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide,” the statement said
If a big boat sinks and it isn’t in the Suez or Panama Canal, does it even count? I want days of drama and CEOs pearl-clutching and revising quarterly expected earnings or whatever.
And it’s hazardous? This news just sucks. Not one ounce of comedy was on that boat.
I’d like to make the point that this is not typical.
When calcium carbide is exposed to water it causes a reaction producing acetylene gas, which is highly explosive.
Good thing it’s surrounded by water.
Joking aside, if it didn’t burst into flames right away then it’s probably fine on the acetylene front. The main hazard of acetylene is just the insane flamability (explosive limits 2.5-100%). But it’s also very soluble in water and isn’t really harmful to the environment on it’s own. There are actually bacteria that can use it as a food source. So the acetylene is just going to be quickly disapated by the wind and disolved into the ocean where it’ll be broken down into harmless products.
The bigger concern is that, with that much calcium carbide reacting, there was likely fairly substantial amounts of phosphine and arsine produced as well. Those are both pretty damn toxic. Normally the amount of both of those produced in a calcium carbide reaction is fairly small but when there are several shipping containers of the stuff reacting then those normally trace contaminants are likely going to actually amount to something.
actually amount to something
Worst case? 🥺
No idea. I just work with acetylene and am familiar with old acetylene gas machines which use calcium carbide to make it. I have no idea what those toxins actually do in large amounts because I’m only used to dealing with them as fairly trace contaminants. I just know enough to know that the acetylene itself shouldn’t be much of an issue but those two chemicals could be.
Okay, thank you. 🙇♂️