Scrubbers

A row of heavy cylindrical vessels stands inside the Bathurst Gasworks, the steel construction running from the floor to the height of the surrounding plant. The vessels are riveted and bolted at the seams, with inspection hatches and access valves set into the lower courses. Pipework connects each vessel into the next in series, the runs corroded but holding their alignment. Concrete bases secure each vessel to the floor. The whole assembly carries a uniform red-brown corrosion across all surfaces, with the heaviest pitting at the lower welds where moisture collected during long disuse.

The function of these particular vessels is uncertain. They have the form of scrubber towers, which would have passed crude gas through a water or treated wash to strip out the soluble fractions such as ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and water vapour before the gas reached the purifier shed. Working gas plants of the Bathurst Gasworks scale ran their crude gas through a sequence of condensers, scrubbers, exhausters, and purifiers between the retort house and the distribution mains, and identification of any single stage in a long-disused facility is hard to confirm from the surviving equipment alone. The Bathurst Gasworks operated on coal carbonisation under council from 1888 until 1979 and on AGL LPG reforming until 1987. These vessels have stood unworked since.