Hyderabad, July 1 || An explosion in a spray dryer machine is suspected to have caused Telangana’s worst industrial disaster at the pharmaceutical unit of Sigachi Industries at Pashamylaram near Hyderabad, claiming more than 30 lives.
While authorities have launched an investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the blast, officials in the industries department believe that a massive temperature buildup in the spray dryer may have caused the explosion in the Microcrystalline Cellulose (MCC) drying unit.
A spray dryer turns a liquid or slurry into a dried powder by atomising it into a hot gas stream. As a chemical process in a spray dryer leads to a sharp rise in temperature, a bow air handler is used to regulate airflow and temperature.
Experts say the blow air handler has to be cleaned at regular intervals for the system to work effectively. They suspect that a lack of proper cleaning may have resulted in the temperature rising to the highest level in the spray dryer, and this could have triggered the explosion.
The officials believe that the temperature at the time of the explosion had reached 700-800 degrees Celsius.