I had planned to write “I’m blogging to you from the inside of a giant tank” but unfortunately WAP = CRAP so I shall have to do this post the traditional way via a keyboard.

As I mentioned on Monday, I have been working in a chemical recovery plant. I was a little brief in my post then, so I shall elaborate today.

My Dad has been doing some work for a company which involves setting up a tank system to clean some water for them. It’s actually quite clever! There are two tanks which I spent most of the morning filling with these little plastic bastards:

As you can see, they look like giant pasta shapes. There were about 200 large bags full of them, and I spent the better half of Monday hand-cranking them up a total height of 4m to the top of the tanks.

Once there, they had to be poured into the tanks, and then I had to get in with them and make sure they were evenly distributed. That was quite fun actually: not only did they cut my wrists to shreds (sleeves kept rolling up), but they were also like quicksand which meant I kept sinking in them. Plus there were loads of pipes in the way, it was like some sort of horrible 3D maze.

Here’s another photo:

And the ladder to the top of the tank, just to give you some idea of perspective:

Anyway, back to the sharp bastards and their purpose. They are there to provide a surface for anaerobic microbes to grow on. These microbes break down the oil in the water to smaller hydrocarbons like methane (I think). I made a diagram! (You should note that I couldn’t be bothered to draw the bastards on the other side of the tank, but I assure you they were there.)

Well now, to complete your multimedia experience I also made a little video of the inside of the tank. It’s a bit crappy, and consists only of me saying “Well, this is the inside of a tank” but then again you do get to hear my voice.