Follow Up Evaluation of Design Changes to a Houseboat Generator Exhaust Stack System

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hammond, Duane R. ; Marlow, David A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Description:
  On April 27, 2004, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers conducted a follow-up evaluation of an exhaust stack designed to reduce carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and prevent exposures on houseboats at Sumerset Acquisitions LLC in Somerset, Kentucky. This work was conducted to evaluate permanent design changes that were made to the Sumerset stack since the August 2003 CO evaluation documented in the NIOSH report titled, "An evaluation of factors that might influence exhaust stack performance to prevent carbon monoxide poisonings from houseboat generator exhaust." Although the exhaust stacks evaluated during the August 2003 NIOSH study performed well, the initial design included several factors that influenced the stack performance. The factors included small pipe diameters, long runs from the water separator to the end of the stack, numerous bends, and horizontal runs. Those factors created high static pressure in the stack that did not allow the system to function properly and allow all of the exhaust gases to travel up through the stack to a non-occupied area above the top deck. Instead, the high pressure in the previous stack designs caused some of the exhaust gases to be forced out the water outlet near the water level at the side of the boat. Following the NIOSH August 2003 evaluation, Sumerset made several permanent exhaust stack design changes to alleviate the static pressure problems. This report provides a brief description of the design changes, methods, results, and conclusions from the follow-up evaluation. CO measurements were collected on a 2004 model Sumerset Acquisitions LLC (Somerset, KY). The houseboat had a gasoline-powered generator connected to a stack that exhausted the CO in a non-occupied area above the top deck on the stern, port-side of the boat. Data were collected to evaluate the performance of the exhaust stack to reduce CO concentrations on the houseboat. The evaluation took place in the morning on a test pond at the Sumerset factory.
• Subjects:
  Engineering Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Safety Ships Vehicle Emissions
• Keywords:
  Boat-manufacturing-industry Control-equipment Control-technology Emission-sources Engineering-controls Environmental-control-equipment Equipment-design Exhaust-gases Exposure-levels OSHA Region 4 Poison-gases

  More +
• Series:
  Engineering and Physical Hazards Survey Reports
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHEPHB17134a2
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Interagency Agreement
• Name as Subject:
  Sumerset Acquisitions LLC
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; Somerset (KY) ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology ; EPHB - Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• Contributor:
  Campbell, Diana
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20025160
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2004-106473
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, EPHB 171-34a2, 2004 Jul ; :1-9
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3732 - Boat building and repairing - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:982c1adf0d8d2dcf6c4f2016d68c60308018a12a750d0a88f975314ed0a5da1e5e447c5a6a9f826ed8e6023347301eaacafd0e4d4173733f360d74bbf654415b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/174840/cdc_174840_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 531.09 KB ]