![]() Luckily wastewater tanks don’t have sanitary concerns and are fairly easy to work with. They will almost always be permit required confined spaces since potential for engulfment is almost always present. If you do have to go in one of these tanks, at least ventilate with a proper blower.īrewery wastewater tanks are probably the most hazardous tanks with respect to confined spaces. If your fermenter has persistent funk at the head space, again, its a spray ball or chemical time, temperature, or concentration issue. Do not get in there and scrub at the end of the week, it’s a serious accident waiting to happen. Time, temperature, or concentration of chemical- or it could be a spray ball issue. If your brew kettle has burned on gunk at the end of every week, the problem is your CIP scheme. Issues are scratches, horizontal tank openings, welding, sanitary requirments, and lack of a space to mount a hoist. I will say most fermenters and brewing vessels do not have good solutions for confined space entry and retrieval mechanisms. The nice thing is in these workshops you can ask questions about specific examples, they will answer them or get an answer for you. Someone at your brewery should become a confined space entry expert. OSHA and local or state affiliates offer these workshops. Workshops are available in your area for free. Now that person is unconscious in the bottom of a tank- 200 lbs of limp, unconscious person that you have to remove from the tank within a few seconds in order to prevent permanent brain damage. Depending how low the oxygen level is, 1-2 breaths is enough to cause someone to pass out. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, it will sink and displace the atmospheric air- including oxygen. In a brewery, oxygen deficiency is the main culprit. ![]() That means at a minimum the air needs to be tested before some enters the tank (or even sticks their head in). Brew kettle, whirlpool, fermenters, bright tanks, wastewater vaults, even innocuous tanks such as cold or hot liquor tanks- they’re all confined spaces. In a brewery, just about all tanks are classified as confined spaces. Confined spaces do not need to be small imagine a million gallon water tank that your city water dept. If it has potential moving parts or engulfment, it can become a permit required confined space. A big difference is is it designed for human occupancy or not, also limited access and egress. Not mop closets, basements, or small rooms. Generally speaking, confined spaces are things like tanks, sumps, kettles, etc. It will go in to practical ways to work with confined spaces. This post will not get in to the technical details of what is or is not a confined space. “I knew we had confined spaces around here, but we never did anything about it.” Choice ignorance can kill someone and land someone in jail. Please read this, even if you don’t want to learn about brewery confined spaces.
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