Dougan
Well-Known Member
...wouldn't the CO2 in the atmosphere float to the ground and we'd all suffocate?
Here's a list of occasions where CO2 flows resulted in fatalities.
There's a recent case where CO2 evolving from a lake-bed killed a bunch of people, but I can't find the reference.
In all cases (like your first brew), insufficient mixing.
Getting . . . sleepy. Can't keep my eyes open.
I must be in a pocket of co2 concentration. Or could it be from reading Shorty's explanation.
<----Chemist/Chemical Engineer. I'm a hit at parties.
In at least older breweries someone needs to get in the fermenting vessel to clean after the beer has been racked off. IIRC, if they get in too soon, the blanket of CO2 will not have dissipated, and they could pass out/die.
The lake bed was methane not co2.. just so you know. Lake Kivu, in Africa.
Here's a list of occasions where CO2 flows resulted in fatalities.
There's a recent case where CO2 evolving from a lake-bed killed a bunch of people, but I can't find the reference.
In all cases (like your first brew), insufficient mixing.
In 1986, a tremendous explosion of CO2 from the lake Nyos, West of Cameroon, killed more than 1700 people and livestock up to 25 km away. The dissolved CO2 is seeping from springs beneath the lake and is trapped in deep water by the high hydrostatic pressure. If the CO2 saturation level is reached, bubbles appear and draw a rich mixture of gas and water up. An avalanche process is triggered which results in an explosive over-turn of the whole lake. Since 1990 a French team has carried out a series of tests in an attempt to release the gas slowly through vertical pipes
Nyos
The lake bed was methane not co2.. just so you know. Lake Kivu, in Africa.
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