Black Tsunami, Alok Dasgupta [reading rainbow books .txt] 📗

Eyob climbed the steel ladder to reach the top of Vat XII. As he moved on the gang-way to inspect the methane digester, he stopped and looked around for the last time of the ‘day’. To the south, at a distance of 12 kilometers, lay the Gigapolis, home to the 20 million Antes as the city-people were usually referred to, packed in their respective ‘resi-cubicles’. Its turrets and long domes shone under the moon-rays beamed down by the countless mega-reflectors permanently placed on stationary orbit in space. Eyob knew that after half an hour, the reflectors would be folded up and ‘night’ would set in. For the next eight hours the antes would be snugly lodged in their respective nests, not daring to venture outdoors in the wan yet potentially dangerous red rays of a dying sun except in protective gears and emergencies. But Eyob and his colleagues would keep working, wearing special protective suits since their work never stopped.

Eyob was part of the “Atteroenergy” team – the group of professionals who performed the critical job of treating all the waste generated by the antes living in the gigapolis, converting it to energy and sending it back to the city for use. He was part of ‘Atteropolis’ or the city of waste. Although it nearly matched the gigapolis in size it did not match its population having just one-tenth of the people of gigapolis. Only the wastenergy team members and their families lived here. Most of atteropolis’ area contained series of giant round steel chambers or tanks which Eyob and his co-workers called anaerobic digesters. Fed by long and large under-ground pipes, these chambers received all the city wastes for safe treatment. Sitting on top of these enormous digesters where big squat vessels called methane collectors. These were, in turn connected to the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant consisting of five huge LNG trains. The biogas that was generated in the anaerobic digesters were trapped in the collectors and carried to the LNG plant for treatment. Each of the LNG train was an independent unit for treatment and gas liquefaction to make Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Finally the LNG was collected and transported to the gigapolis by a fleet of cryogenic road tankers to be used to fuel the transportation network there.

Eyob walked across the gang-way, perched 25 feet above the ground, and reached the control panels of the anaerobic digester atop Vat XII. One by one he started checking out the valves, the meters and the indicators. This was the last manual check before the day ended. Suddenly he felt a slight tremor below his feet. The next check was slated four hours later by which time Eyob would have retired to his nest. Although the entire system was automatic with each and every information being automatically fed to the centralized control room, the daily routine for manual inspection was never discontinued from the day the plant was commissioned. There was a secret and sacred belief among Eyob’s colleagues that nothing could replace manual inspection. Looking down at the control panel, Eyob was startled; he got a rude surprise! The glass cover of the pressure meter of the vat was broken. It seemed as if blown off by a great force! He checked the meter for the methane collector. It was showing extreme high pressure! Eyob was flabbergasted. The safety system should have been automatically activated including the auto-alarm which should have immediately responded and the vats put on stand-by mode. However, nothing had happened. It meant that the digester was producing too much gas than the system could handle! Eyob tried to focus his thoughts and decide on the best course of action. He took out his air-phone and called up Kwanzai at the central control station to check on the situation there. Suddenly there was another tremor. Now Eyob could here a rumble inside the giant tank. He was shaken up badly. He spoke urgently to Kwanzai to check the situation at the main computer control panel. Kwanzai reported that it appeared normal there. Something in the system had gone wrong terribly; it was not working the way it should thought Eyob. He briefly explained the problem to Kwanzai and asked him to put on the self check process at the main control. Kwanzai did that but told Eyob that it would take a two minute run-time to complete before taking any auto-corrective action. He would also have to alert the Plant Supervisor. Eyob had to simply hang on till then.

Deep inside the giant tanks, trillions of bacteria were feverishly working on the putrescible waste in a dark, oxygen-bereft atmosphere. As they worked tirelessly, the temperature started increasing and more and more bubbles of biogas shot up from the murky depths. As the temperature rose and the energy escaped from the sewage, the liquid sludge started to expand and sway in small waves here and there building up the pressure inside the tank. Suddenly from the depth of the tank, where billions of micro-organisms where producing methane, a big burp of gas erupted setting off a chain reaction of frenzied upward movement of the sludge. The released kinetic energy sent a shock wave like an earthquake pushing the sludge column up and down and transforming the liquid into a massive horizontal wave. It lashed on the walls of the giant tank like a mad tsunami! Unable to withstand the huge pressure, the walls of the steel tank exploded and the dark smelly liquid spilled out as a massive wave. Methane gushed out with a hissing sound. The impact flung Eyob high into the air. He landed afar on a mud slope. Groaning with pain he looked up to see a huge column of black liquid hurtling towards the LNG plant which lay in the path of the gigapolis. Suddenly there was a loud cracking noise. The next instance Eyob saw the air above the liquid catch fire. Instantly, he knew that a Rapid Phase Transition Explosion had occurred as the sewage water came in contact with the cold LNG. He tried to raise his hand and cover his face but was unable to lift even a finger. Helplessly he lay on the ground and watched a burning black wave move menacingly towards the gigapolis ready to unleash total destruction!

Publication Date: 09-09-2011

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