Had plans to use Matugama to dump Sulfuric acid
By Ifham Nizam
A move by an Indian company to launch a BOI-approved industrial project in Sri Lanka with the Matugama area earmarked to dump Sulfuric acid, has been blocked by the Central Environment Authority (CEA).
The CEA, following discussions with India’s premier scientific institution, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has decided to respond negatively to the proposed venture.
The Sunday Island learns, that even President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told local scientists to drop the project, if it cannot be ensured there will be no environmental pollution.
Advanced Surfactant Lanka Ltd., which is one of the overseas branches of the Advance Surfactant Group of Companies in India, wanted to launch the project to manufacture basic raw materials to produce 250 tons of surfactants per day. The manufacturing chemical were to include Linear Alkyl Benzene Sulfuric Acid (LABSA), Linear Alkyl Benzene Sulfuric (LAS) and some fatty acid sulfates.
All these products need Sulfuric Acid as a basic chemical which were to be produced by the industry for their own use, an official said.
He says Sulfuric acid is produced by burning sulfur industrially, converting resulting Sulfur dioxide into Sulfur trioxide and absorbing the Sulfur trioxide into concentrated sulfuric acid. This absorbing process called "Double Contract Double Absorption (DCDA) Method is described as the world’s advanced method of producing Sulfuric acid.
Manufacturing of Sulfuric acid produces considerable amount of Sulfur Dioxide as a pollutant gas emission and acid mist as a vapor which release through the stuck.
Though the industry operates a series of devices of air pollution control measures to reduce the Sulfur Dioxide which goes as an emission, each ton of producing sulfuric acid emits considerable pollutions to the air.
Normally, Sulfur Dioxide emission depends on absorbing efficiency and the efficiency of Sulfur Dioxide convention to Sulfur Trioxide. Each Sulfuric acid ton production has emissions two kilogram of Sulfur dioxide to the air even if the best technology is applied for the mitigation.
According to optimum efficiency at 97.5 per cent each sulfuric acid produces two kilograms of SO2 which will be spread and disperses through the atmosphere.
If the conversion efficiency is very low Sulfur Dioxide emission rate will be very high. Produced Sulfur Trioxide gas collected as a sulfur trioxide liquid in the industry is a considerable threat to the safety of the community. In event of an accidental release, there may be serious health problems. Although the industry has adopted a lot of measures to improve the safety of the operations, a considerable threat still lies within the neighborhood exposed to storage areas of Sulfur Trioxide.
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