so I actually had a friend years back who worked at a junkyard.
I was hanging out there with him one time (definitely probably not smoking anything…) and he was still clearing things out.
so he grabs a propane tank and brings it up to where he has an oxyacetylin torch, lights the torch and starts cutting into the tank.
I about shit my pants and took off at least 50 ft back behind a car asking if he was trying to die today.
apparently I was the one that didn’t know what I was talking about though because of a second later he cut through and it just popped a little flame.
he just let that flame burn until it was out and that’s how he knew the tank was empty.
apparently these things are very hard to blow up.
They don’t blow up, but they will create a bigass torch that will spin them around some. You’re not getting blown into pieces, but you’re going to be going into the er with some bbq’d body parts.
maybe if it was more full?
the tank didn’t even move when I saw it, just a little flame about 4 inches long for a couple mins.
was super anticlimactic
Pressurised gas is a different story, and liquid pressurised gas is even worse still.
Basically a bomb if they are in a fire.
yeah this will work but you basically have to create a fire around the tank while keeping it pressurized right? you have to bring the whole tank to the point where it overwhelms the relief valve.
Yeah nah, that’s not the way. Sure people can get away with it, but it’s really not eliminating the hazards.
- https://www.fnqsafetygroup.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cutting-empty-drums.pdf
- https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/safety-alerts/explosions-when-cutting-used-fuel-tanks-and-metal-drums
There’s a bunch of non-obvious hazards which exist around cutting into containers which have held fuels, including but not limited to:
- An empty propane container could have an gas+air mixture inside it in proportions which could explode.
- Any liquid residue in an empty fuel container can be vapourised by the heat of the cutting, creating a fuel+air mix which can spontaneously explode from the pressure and heat, even without sparks (think: diesel engine principle but instead of a 0.25L cylinder it’s a 200L cylinder).
- An empty gas canister can be contaminated with heavier oils/waxes that could build up over the years of refilling cycles, creating the same hazard as noted for empty liquid fuel containers.
Methods to reduce the hazard include:
- Thoroughly washing the inside of the container before cutting (access can be difficult though).
- Filling with water and cutting while full of water. (Container musn’t be sealed, and the cutting method must be safe to use in a wet environment, and further hazards such as introducing oxygen into the container need to be considered).
