“On the bottom of each tank distributing pipes for dissolving-water
supply were installed, and at the top of each, at the end next to the
building, there was an overflow trough and skimmer board arranged so
that the dissolving-water after flowing up through the salt, overflowed
into this trough and then into a piping system and into either of two
collecting tanks. The system was so arranged that, if the brine was
not fully saturated, it could be passed through another storage tank
containing a deep body of salt. The saturated brine was pumped from the
collecting tanks to any one of 24 treating tanks, each of which had a
capacity of 72,000 gallons.
“The eighth storage bin was used for the storage of soda ash, used in
treating the saturated brine. This was delivered from the bin on the
floor level of the salt building to the soda ash dissolving tanks. From
these tanks it was pumped to any one of the 24 treating tanks. After
the brine was treated and settled, the clear saturated brine was drawn
from the treating tanks through decanting pipes and delivered by pumps
to any one of the four neutralizing tanks. These were located next
to a platform on the level of the car body. This was to provide easy
handling of the hydrochloric acid, which was purchased at first, though
later prepared at the plant from chlorine and hydrogen. The neutralized
brine was delivered from the tanks by a pump to a tank located at a
height above the floor so that the brine would flow by gravity to the
cells in the cell building.
“There were to be two cell buildings, each 541 feet long by 82 feet
wide, and separated by partitions into four sections, containing six
cell circuits of 74 cell units. Each section is a complete unit in
itself, provided with separate gas pump, drying and cooling equipment,
and has a guaranteed capacity of 12.5 tons of chlorine gas per 24 hours.
“Each Nelson electrolytic cell unit consists of a complete fabricated
steel tank 13 by 32 by 80 inches, a perforated steel diaphragm spot
welded to supporting angle irons, plate glass dome, fourteen Acheson
graphite electrodes 2.5 inches in diameter, 12 inches long and fourteen
pieces of graphite 4 by 4 by 17 inches, and various accessories.
(The cell is completely described in _Chemical and Metallurgical
Engineering_, August 1st, 1919.) Each cell is operated by a current
of 340 amperes and 3.8 volts and is guaranteed to produce 60 pounds
of chlorine gas and 65 pounds of caustic soda using not more than 120
pounds of salt per 24 hours, the gas to be at least 95 per cent pure.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.—Interior View of the Cell Building.]
“The salt solution from the cell feed tank, located in the salt
treating building, flows by gravity through a piping system located in
a trench running the length of each cell building, and is delivered to
each cell unit through an automatic feeding device which maintains a
constant liquor level in the cathode compartment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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