Weathering of sulphur block at Shell's Shantz sulphur facility

There are dangers at sulphur blocks that come not merely from pieces of sulphur falling off the block.  It can also happen that a sulphur block collapses, such as in a more sophisticated operation than that described in the caption of the next photo.  A sulphur block collapse occurred during the re-melting of a sulphur block on December 2, 2004 at the Ram River Gas Plant, where the Quinn Sulphur Handling Remelt Operations team experienced an incident with serious potential for personal injury. (Article; Block Collapse Photo)

 

More flaking at Shantz
In the background at the centre-right of the photo is a small gap in the massive sulphur block where a pay loader pushes sulphur into a sub-surface pit where it is melted for processing.

 

A sulphur-prilling machine in action

At the far end droplets of liquid sulphur are deposited on a moving, water-cooled stainless steel belt.  In the front the still warm but solidified droplets (prills) are dropped onto a conveyor belt that moves the prills into storage.
   At Shantz, about 40 machines like that in the photo above are in use, and the prills are stored, prior to loading them, in two silos with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes, each. 

 

Sulphur unit train being loaded

The prills are moved by gravity through a covered loading facility into unit-trains consisting each of a hundred or more open railroad cars.

At HAZCO's proposed facility for the Lamont County, initially about eight prilling machines would be operating.  The plans for HAZCO's facility indicate open conveyor belts that will deposit the prills in an open storage pile with a maximum capacity of 45,000 tonnes.  From there the prills would be loaded with a front-end loader onto an open conveyor belt into an open loading facility.
   HAZCO plans to avoid dust problems and conversion of sulphur through weathering (through the action of thiobacilli) into sulphuric acid that will contaminate the environment, by drenching its sulphur pile with a watery solution of sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS). 
   SLS suppresses the action of  thiobacilli but is also toxic to aquatic life.  SLS is a known skin irritant.  Its effects are used as a standard of reference in control groups for tests intended to determine the severity of skin reactions to a variety of chemical substances ranging from cosmetic products to chemical warfare agents. Insufficient test data were found to permit drawing conclusions as to what effect specific levels or amounts of SLS will have on humans when ingested through contaminated drinking water, although material safety sheets for SLS state that SLS must not be ingested, as it will cause diarrhea and vomiting.
   Still, the EU standards for drinking water specify that SLS must not exceed 200 µg per liter of water.  That is a minuscule quantity of SLS, two ten-millionth of a gram.  It has not been identified by anyone what concentrations of SLS could be expected in the groundwater used by residents in the vicinity of the proposed HAZCO sulphur facility in Lamont County, nor does it appear that HAZCO plans to put into place anything that will prevent water contaminated with SLS to escape into the environment at its proposed sulphur storage and -handling facility for Lamont County
 

Sulphur car leaving loading facility

 

110-car sulphur unit-train leaving loading facility at Shantz
It takes about 6 hours to load one train.
HAZCO estimates that its facility proposed for the County of Lamont will be able to load such a train in about 12 hours.