Adventures in the weather

[psychomatt]

Here's some of the things from the storm at work

Comments

[elyssa]

My God! I am glad everyone got through that mess safely on your work end, at least. What do you do that requires such long shifts and can't close down? (If you can say, of course!)

[psychomatt]

It's a corn-processing plant.

A normal shift is 8 hours, but when someone is off it requires overtime to fill it (most jobs CAN'T be left vacant for a shift.)

A controlled shutdown takes several days, and a restart takes several more days to get things running at all & a few weeks to get everything working properly. A fast shutdown would most likely require months to restart (due to having to completely tear apart most parts of the process to clean out clogged lines, replace frozen pumps, etc.)

[elyssa]

That is really interesting! I never knew there was so much behind corn!

[psychomatt]

It's not the corn itself, so much as the different products we make from it (starch, alcohol, animal feeds, syrup, etc.)