User:Steve from mars/Brown Coal Liquefaction Victoria

Brown Coal Liquefaction Victoria (B.C.L.V)
Brown Coal Liquefaction Victoria, (B.C.L.V) was a research and Development plant researching the feasibility of converting Brown Coal into oil. It was built atMorwell,, Victoria, Australia and was built in the early 1980's, ceasing operation in the early 1990's.

Companies involved
B.C.L.V. was a joint research effort by Mitsubishi Chemicals, Kobe steel, Idemitsu Kosan, Nisho Iwai, Asia Oil and the Japanese Government. The Australian federal Government and the State Government of Victoria were also involved by providing the land on which the site was built and the coal. The Coal Corporation of Victoria, a State government department, was also involved in the project in a minor way.

Process
The B.C.L.V. process was based on German methods from World war 2 as well as more recent work done in South Africa. Victorian Brown Coal has a high water content (app. 60%) and was dried and ground into a fine dust before being mixed with a special oil to form a slurry. The slurry was then heated to 400C and pressures over 30 Megapascal before being fed to the Primary and secondary Hydrogenation stages where the conversion process occurred.

Controversies
The B.C.L.V. project was involved in a number of controversies.
 * Foreign Investment. The controversy here centered on the Japanese keeping the exact nature of the conversion process a secret. Employees were made to sign secrecy agreements regarding the equipment and processes involved. It was also claimed that Australian companies were kept out of the project, thus denying to Australia any information regarding potential use of Australian Assets. In Reality, some Australian companies were invited to participate but declined, and the secrecy issue seems to be a Xenophobic reaction to normal copyright and patent issues.


 * Foreign workers. Approximately 200 Japanese workers and their families moved to Morwell to work on the project. There were claims that the Japanese should have hired Australians to do the work. In actuality the Japanese who moved to Morwell were Engineering and management staff. Operations and Maintenance staff were Australians.


 * Non Local workers. As the B.C.L.V. project involved a rather specialized industry i.e. The Petrochemical Industry, there were not sufficient persons in the Morwell area to operate the project and so vacancies for Operations staff were advertised throughout Australia. Approximately 200 Chemical plant operators were hired from locations throughout Australia.


 * Toxic waste. The project did produce large quantities of toxic waste material. There were allegations that this material was not correctly disposed of.

The most noticeable effect on workers was skin sensitisation to UV light when first exposed to vapours from one of the materials used in the process. Effects included itchiness where the skin had been exposed to sunlight, nausea, and severe headaches. The precise effects, and degree of effect, varied between individuals. Follow up studies were also made after the project closed down.
 * Health Concerns. Due to the toxic nature of some of the by products of the process health checks were done annually, including hearing tests.


 * Nilma. Samples of material were regularly shipped to Japan for further analysis and storage and one of these deliveries became controversial when a truck carrying samples was hit by a train at the small Victorian town of Nilma. Several 200 litre drums of finely ground coal dust burst open creating a dust cloud and drums of various liquid products burst open. Some of the train passengers, as well as Nilam residents and train workers who cleared the debris, became affected. ( see health effects above).