- Kennecott Smokestack
The Kennecott Smokestack is a 370.4 meter (1,215 ft) high
smokestack west ofMagna, Utah , along SR-201 at coor dms|40|43|18|N|112|11|52|W|. It was built in order to spread the exhaust gases far away from the area of the Kennecottsmelter forcopper . In 1974 (the year it was completed), environmental rules were such that waste gases could be released in large quantities as long as they were diluted. At that time, up to 48,000 pounds per hour ofsulfur dioxide were released. The stack remains as a monument of that time and is still used to exhaust remaining gases after a thorough recovery/scrubbing operation. In 1995 a much cleaner smelter of new design was built in cooperation with the Finnish companyOutokumpu . Only a few pounds per hour are now released. The company produces and sells approximately one million tons per year ofsulfuric acid made from the formerly released gas. [http://www.kennecott.com/library/media/papers/pdf/Sulfuric_Acid_Environmental_Profile_Declaration.pdf] The acid recovery plant was built by a division ofMonsanto Corporation. This plant is also designed to recover waste heat from the process to produce electrical power.The stack is convert|120|ft|m in diameter at the bottom and rises directly from the ground. A large glass fiber reinforced plastic duct passes up the stack and carries gases to the top. The top can be accessed by a Swedish-built elevator that crawls up a gear track on the inside surface. It takes 10 minutes to ascend the stack. It is not open to the public, but those few who have been at the top are privileged with a magnificent view of the adjacent
Great Salt Lake and Oquirrh Mountain Range.The Kennecott Smokestack is the tallest free-standing structure west of the
Mississippi River and the fourth tallest smokestack in the world.ee also
*
List of chimneys
*List of tallest freestanding structures in the world References
External links
* [http://www.kennecott.com/index.html Kennecott Utah Copper]
*A comparison with other large stacks of the world can be seen at [http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?m45 skyscraperpage] .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
