Characteristics of Unorganized Hydrogen Sulfide Dispersion for Industrial Building Layout Optimization

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is the main toxic pollutant emitted to the atmosphere from auto-coating wastewater. Its unorganized dispersion poses a health challenge for workers. Defining safe working distance, which transfers the H2S occupational exposure limit into industrial construction design regulation, would be a useful approach for reducing H2S exposure risk. Therefore, in this study, an H2S dispersion prediction, within 25 m, was performed by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to explore the influence of temperature and wind speed on H2S dispersion. With the temperature changes from 288 K to 303 K, the H2S concentration at different observing points decreased. With wind speed changes from 2 m/s to 20 m/s, the plume layer structure was studied in the whole process. According to the H2S distribution characteristics, when the sedimentation tank treatment capacity is less than or equal to 10 m3/h, the safe working distance of H2S unorganized dispersion is 10 m. Hence, when there are workplaces within 10 m of the tank, closed measures should be taken for the sedimentation tank, or the manufacturer layout should be optimized to protect the environment and human health.