Tank farms are used for the storage of highly flammable and explosive substances; Consequently, preventive fire safety is of major significance. When rehabilitation of such a tank farm is deliberate, contractors often advocate intensive – and thus costly – measures. A fire-protection resolution developed by TÜV SÜD demonstrates that an equal level of security can additionally be reached with a much more cost-effective resolution. A central position in injury limitation is performed by early fireplace detection using thermographic cameras.
Numerous tank farms throughout Germany retailer petrol, diesel, kerosene or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In contact with air, these extremely flammable substances can kind explosive mixtures. Given this, tank farms require particular measures within the area of preventive fire safety. If rehabilitation of fire-protection techniques becomes needed at an older tank farm, far-reaching measures must be taken, not solely by the use of precaution but in addition to exclude attainable legal responsibility dangers. And but not each measure that is technologically possible can also be needed in case of a rehabilitation, as may be seen from the example of a tank farm in Bavaria, Germany.
The tank farm is located at a basin of a river port in Bavaria. The part of the tank farm in want of rehabilitation covers 24 tanks with a storage quantity of between 600 and 2,000 cubic metres. The tank farm is used for intermediate storage of extremely flammable fluids with flame points of < 21 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the German hazardous substances legislation. In fire inspections and on-site inspections after incidents, the inspectors had recognized main non-conformities within the fire-extinguishing system. To substitute the outdated and non-conforming system, an engineering agency submitted an extensive list of measures. These measures absolutely satisfied all regulatory requirements however represented a really cost-intensive answer, requiring a full rehabilitation utilizing conventional extinguishing methods. For the tank-farm operating firm, the costs of implementing these measures would have added up to 1.7 million euros.
In fireplace safety, the challenge lies in connecting well-founded technological knowledge and legal know-how. In apply this means harmonising reasonable engineering providers and legal purposes to obtain a cohesive, economically possible and simply implemented fire-protection idea.
Alternative solution developed by TÜV SÜD
At the working company’s request, TÜV SÜD’s third-party experts validated the person measures and the cost-effectiveness of the rehabilitation plan submitted by the engineering agency. Owing to the massive number of deficiencies recognized in the tank farm, the consultants first ready an inventory of priorities with the measures necessary to fulfil the protection necessities and achieve the safety aims. They arrived on the conclusion that not all of the proposed measures actually needed to be implemented. Starting from this discovering, they then drew up an alternative fire-protection concept that might in the end reduce the projected prices by one third.
TÜV SÜD’s rehabilitation plan included the fire-protection infrastructure already in place on the tank farm, corresponding to a non-automatic foam extinguishing system with a total foaming-agent provide of 10,500 litres distributed across two tanks, two submerged pumps within the port basin with a pump capacity of a hundred and eighty m3 per hour to make sure water provide for hearth combating and sprinkling the shells and the roofs of the tanks, manual triggering of the shut-off valves and a transformer station powered by the regional energy provider. The feed-in of emergency energy was effected by the native professional fire department.
The engineering agency, in contrast, had deliberate to replace the entire fire-extinguishing system. เพรสเชอร์เกจน้ำ wanted to install three cellular extinguishing-agent distribution methods in container form for distant controlled sprinkling and foaming of the tanks. This solution would have required the installation of recent electrical, operational and management techniques in addition to new pipe routes connecting the extinguishing-agent distribution techniques with the fire-fighting techniques in the tank fields. The prices for the three extinguishing-agent distribution techniques in container form alone would have added as a lot as around 1.2 million euros.
Incipient hearth combating scenario with intact energy provide and free access to the tank farm.
Implementation of three packages of measures
The alternative rehabilitation concept developed by TÜV SÜD, which additionally met the necessities of the Bavarian Building Code (BayBo [1]), supplied for three important packages of measures to achieve the safety and security goals.
First, set up of a totally automatic infrared measuring system made by DIAS Infrared to ensure early hearth detection. The system’s seven thermographic cameras are put in on pan-tilt items. They detect modifications in temperature on the surfaces of the tanks made of various materials and located in the space monitored by the cameras, earlier than these adjustments in temperature can cause a fireplace. As the cameras can move, the areas to be monitored may be divided into sectors. The cameras then strategy these sectors cyclically in sequence. To defend the cameras in opposition to exterior influences, they’re housed in ventilated and heated weatherproof enclosures (Fig. 1). Monitoring focuses totally on the safety gadgets of the tanks, pumps and motors and on the filling systems on the tank-farm premises. The management room on the tank farm and the native skilled fireplace division are notified instantly as soon because the temperature exceeds a sure restrict. The measure package also consists of distant triggering of the extinguishing-agent supply from the management centre and automation of the protection units.
Incipient fire combating situation with energy loss where entry to the tank farm is blocked by a cargo prepare.
In addition, it covers rehabilitation of the sprinkler and foam-extinguisher system. In this context, TÜV SÜD’s solution supplied for alternative of the leaking and corroded pipe sections with new pipes and for set up of three mounted foam-extinguishing systems in the form of foam monitors to fight incipient fires instantly. In addition, a cell foam monitor was planned as a backup.
A third focus space issues safeguarding the ability supply required for early fireplace detection and fireplace preventing. According to the regional energy provider, energy outages could have a duration of a minimal of half-hour. Given this, the tank-farm needed an impartial energy provide system that was able to make sure energy supply for at least 2 hours. The consultants relied on battery buffering and a diesel operated emergency power unit to solve this problem.
Fire protection must ensure achievement of the protection aims
Protection objectives and equivalent security stage reached
The fire-protection resolution introduced by TÜV SÜD was agreed with both the tank farm’s working firm, the municipal authority and the professional hearth department. The three measure packages also complied with the required protection objectives and the protection ranges. And ultimately, they proved far cheaper than the answer initially proposed. Since rehabilitation of the tank farm, early hearth detection at the facet of improved fire-protection infrastructure has become a central a half of injury limitation. Since the rehabilitation idea was applied, the tank-farm’s working firm – working with the skilled fireplace department – has been in a position to successfully counteract all attainable situations of incipient fire successfully and at an early stage, even in circumstances of energy loss or when entry to the tank farm is blocked (see Figures 2 and 3).
For more data, go to www.tuev-sued.de/is or www.dias-infrared.de
Classification under the Bavarian Building Code (Bayerische Bauordnung, BayBo)
Tank farms are installations of a special type and use (special structures). Their operation involves the dealing with and storing of extremely explosive or flammable substances. Protection measures and security precautions thus not solely fall inside the working company’s duty but are additionally a matter of public curiosity. Given this, the BayBO stipulates necessities together with material necessities which, as “General clauses of fireside protection”, assist to support the safety objectives defined in Article 12. However, in accordance with article 3 (1) deviations from the technical building rules are possible if another answer is discovered that is equal when it comes to fulfilling the overall requirements in paragraph 1. In other phrases, the requirements laid down in the Building Code are deemed complied with if the generally recognised rules of architecture and technology are fulfilled.
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