CO2 Venting

[PorterIV]

I am not sure if this is the right Board for this question or not but here goes.

We are getting ready to start construction on our brewery and the architect has raised the question of venting out CO2. Obviously, it is heavier than air and so any ceiling exhaust vans will not be effective. Would a ground level wall exhaust fan be adequate? How much of a problem is this?

What have you all seen?

I want to make sure we are all safe.

Thanks,
Porter

[BrewinLou]

Plenty of info on here about it. If you are working in a small space make sure you have co2 sniffer alarms in there in case of a leak. Our bulk tank has a blow off to the outdoors in case of compressor or power failure. The problem will depend on the size of your space and how much air flow you get from the outdoors. One of the brewers here just about walked into a cooler filled with co2, at another brewery. If the door had closed behind the person it would have been very bad news.

[william.heinric]

A brewery I used to work for had a draw fan mounted about 18 inches above the floor in the basement fermentation room. That was stacked to an outdoor vent to facilitate the removal of CO2. The problem was that there was insufficient flow into the room to really suck out the CO2. If I was doing it, I'd put a vent on the ceiling for heat, a vent on the floor for CO2, and a filtered air supply feeding the room.

That's just my ideal. I guess a huge door would work as well.

Good luck,
Bill

[KWLSD]

As BrewinLou says, the best is to make sure any CO2 vents are external to the building, with low-mounted CO2 alarms, 12" or less from the floor so there is a good early warning of a problem and also reduces the chance of CO2 asphyxiation if someone were to fall, eg. unconscious after hitting their head accidentally.