"Smokeless fire" restores dredge disposal area
"Smokeless fire" restores dredge disposal area
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Workers pile debris into a pit of fire at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah harbor dredge disposal area "1N" at Onslow Island, Dec. 4, 2013. Using a clean process called air curtain burning, the Corps and contractor staff safely disposed of vegetation debris that was cleared from the site. Air curtain burning involves a trailer-mounted air blower that generates a barrier or curtain of air over a fire burning pit. The process limits the amount of smoke released into the air during the burning process. The curtain of air traps the smoke and forces it back into the hot, burning fire to be combusted instead of escaping into the atmosphere. The 1N dredge disposal area has not been actively used for dredging in the last 15 years, but thanks to a new revitalization effort between the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the area is being restored. When complete, it will give the Corps additional capacity to store dredged material from the harbor, while also functioning as a wildlife habitat for waterfowl and other species. USACE photo by Billy Birdwell. Original public domain image from Flickr