Improvement of preventive hearth protection at a tank farm

Tank farms are used for the storage of highly flammable and explosive substances; Consequently, preventive fireplace protection is of major importance. When rehabilitation of such a tank farm is deliberate, contractors often suggest extensive – and thus costly – measures. A fire-protection solution developed by TÜV SÜD demonstrates that an equivalent degree of security can additionally be reached with a much more cost-effective resolution. A central role in harm limitation is performed by early fire detection utilizing thermographic cameras.
Numerous tank farms throughout Germany retailer petrol, diesel, kerosene or liquefied petroleum gasoline (LPG). In contact with air, these extremely flammable substances can type explosive mixtures. Given this, tank farms require particular measures within the field of preventive fireplace protection. If rehabilitation of fire-protection systems becomes necessary at an older tank farm, far-reaching measures ought to be taken, not solely by means of precaution but additionally to exclude attainable liability risks. And yet not each measure that is technologically feasible is also essential in case of a rehabilitation, as can be seen from the instance of a tank farm in Bavaria, Germany.
The tank farm is located at a basin of a river port in Bavaria. The a 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 factors of < 21 degrees Celsius, as outlined within the German hazardous substances legislation. In fire inspections and on-site inspections after incidents, the inspectors had identified major non-conformities in the fire-extinguishing system. To exchange the outdated and non-conforming system, an engineering agency submitted an intensive list of measures. These measures absolutely satisfied all regulatory necessities however represented a really cost-intensive solution, requiring a full rehabilitation using traditional extinguishing techniques. For the tank-farm working company, the prices of implementing these measures would have added as a lot as 1.7 million euros.
In fire safety, the challenge lies in connecting well-founded technological information and authorized know-how. In apply this means harmonising cheap engineering companies and legal functions to acquire a cohesive, economically possible and simply carried out fire-protection concept.
Alternative answer developed by TÜV SÜD
At the working company’s request, TÜV SÜD’s third-party specialists validated the person measures and the cost-effectiveness of the rehabilitation plan submitted by the engineering agency. Owing to the massive variety of deficiencies identified within the tank farm, the experts first prepared an inventory of priorities with the measures necessary to fulfil the security necessities and obtain the safety goals. They arrived on the conclusion that not all of the proposed measures truly wanted to be carried out. Starting from this finding, they then drew up an alternate fire-protection concept that might in the end scale back 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 throughout two tanks, two submerged pumps within the port basin with a pump capability of a hundred and eighty m3 per hour to make sure water provide for fire combating and sprinkling the shells and the roofs of the tanks, guide triggering of the shut-off valves and a transformer station powered by the regional power supplier. The feed-in of emergency energy was effected by the local professional hearth department.
The engineering firm, by contrast, had planned to switch the whole fire-extinguishing system. They wanted to install three cellular extinguishing-agent distribution techniques in container kind for distant controlled sprinkling and foaming of the tanks. This resolution would have required the installation of latest electrical, operational and control techniques in addition to new pipe routes connecting the extinguishing-agent distribution methods with the fire-fighting methods within the tank fields. The costs for the three extinguishing-agent distribution methods in container kind alone would have added as much as round 1.2 million euros.
Incipient fire preventing situation with intact power provide and free access to the tank farm.
Implementation of three packages of measures
The various rehabilitation concept developed by TÜV SÜD, which additionally met the requirements of the Bavarian Building Code (BayBo [1]), supplied for 3 essential packages of measures to attain the safety and safety objectives.
First, set up of a totally computerized infrared measuring system made by DIAS Infrared to ensure early fireplace detection. เกจวัดแรงดันเชื้อเพลิง ’s seven thermographic cameras are installed on pan-tilt models. They detect changes in temperature at the surfaces of the tanks made of various supplies and positioned within the space monitored by the cameras, earlier than these adjustments in temperature could cause a fire. As the cameras can move, the areas to be monitored could be divided into sectors. The cameras then method these sectors cyclically in sequence. To defend the cameras towards exterior influences, they are housed in ventilated and heated weatherproof enclosures (Fig. 1). Monitoring focuses totally on the security devices of the tanks, pumps and motors and on the filling techniques on the tank-farm premises. The management room on the tank farm and the native professional fire department are notified instantly as soon as the temperature exceeds a sure limit. The measure package additionally consists of distant triggering of the extinguishing-agent supply from the control centre and automation of the protection devices.
Incipient fire fighting scenario with power loss the place access to the tank farm is blocked by a cargo train.
In addition, it covers rehabilitation of the sprinkler and foam-extinguisher system. In this context, TÜV SÜD’s resolution offered for replacement of the leaking and corroded pipe sections with new pipes and for set up of three fixed foam-extinguishing methods in the form of foam monitors to battle incipient fires immediately. In addition, a mobile foam monitor was planned as a backup.
A third focus area issues safeguarding the facility supply required for early fireplace detection and fireplace fighting. According to the regional power supplier, power outages may have a length of at least half-hour. Given this, the tank-farm needed an impartial power supply system that was in a position to make sure energy supply for a minimal of 2 hours. The specialists relied on battery buffering and a diesel operated emergency power unit to resolve this downside.
Fire protection should ensure achievement of the protection aims
Protection goals and equal security level reached
The fire-protection answer presented by TÜV SÜD was agreed with both the tank farm’s working company, the municipal authority and the professional fire division. The three measure packages also complied with the required safety aims and the safety ranges. And finally, they proved far cheaper than the answer initially proposed. Since rehabilitation of the tank farm, early fireplace detection in conjunction with improved fire-protection infrastructure has turn into a central part of injury limitation. Since the rehabilitation idea was applied, the tank-farm’s operating firm – working with the skilled fireplace department – has been capable of successfully counteract all attainable scenarios of incipient hearth successfully and at an early stage, even in cases of power loss or when access to the tank farm is blocked (see Figures 2 and 3).
For extra information, go to www.tuev-sued.de/is or www.dias-infrared.de
Classification beneath the Bavarian Building Code (Bayerische Bauordnung, BayBo)
Tank farms are installations of a particular sort and use (special structures). Their operation includes the handling and storing of extremely explosive or flammable substances. Protection measures and security precautions thus not solely fall throughout the working company’s accountability but are also a matter of public interest. Given this, the BayBO stipulates necessities together with materials requirements which, as “General clauses of fireplace protection”, help to assist the safety objectives outlined in Article 12. However, according to article 3 (1) deviations from the technical constructing rules are attainable if an alternative resolution is discovered that is equivalent when it comes to fulfilling the final requirements in paragraph 1. In different phrases, the necessities laid down within the Building Code are deemed complied with if the commonly recognised guidelines of architecture and expertise are fulfilled.
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