PRESSURETHAI LOGO.png

Tank farms are used for the storage of extremely flammable and explosive substances; Consequently, preventive hearth safety is of main significance. When rehabilitation of such a tank farm is deliberate, contractors typically advocate in depth – and thus expensive – measures. A fire-protection answer developed by TÜV SÜD demonstrates that an equal degree of security can be reached with a far more cost-effective answer. A central function in damage limitation is played by early fire detection using 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 special measures within the area of preventive hearth protection. If rehabilitation of fire-protection techniques turns into needed at an older tank farm, far-reaching measures must be taken, not only by method of precaution but also to exclude attainable liability dangers. And but not each measure that’s technologically possible can also be essential in case of a rehabilitation, as may be seen from the example of a tank farm in Bavaria, Germany.
The tank farm is positioned at a basin of a river port in Bavaria. The a part of the tank farm in need of rehabilitation covers 24 tanks with a storage volume 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 levels Celsius, as outlined within the German hazardous substances legislation. In fireplace inspections and on-site inspections after incidents, the inspectors had identified major non-conformities in the fire-extinguishing system. To replace the outdated and non-conforming system, an engineering firm submitted an intensive list of measures. These measures fully glad all regulatory requirements but represented a really cost-intensive answer, requiring a full rehabilitation using conventional extinguishing systems. For the tank-farm working firm, the costs of implementing these measures would have added as a lot as 1.7 million euros.
In hearth protection, the challenge lies in connecting well-founded technological data and legal know-how. In apply this implies harmonising affordable engineering providers and authorized applications to acquire a cohesive, economically feasible and easily implemented fire-protection idea.
Alternative resolution developed by TÜV SÜD
At the working company’s request, TÜV SÜD’s third-party experts validated the individual measures and the cost-effectiveness of the rehabilitation plan submitted by the engineering firm. Owing to เกจวัดแรงดันปั๊มลม of deficiencies identified within the tank farm, the experts first prepared an inventory of priorities with the measures essential to fulfil the safety requirements and obtain the protection aims. They arrived on the conclusion that not all the proposed measures truly wanted to be applied. Starting from this discovering, they then drew up an alternative fire-protection idea that would in the end scale back the projected costs by one third.
TÜV SÜD’ เครื่องมือที่ใช้ในการวัดความดัน included the fire-protection infrastructure already in place at the tank farm, such as a non-automatic foam extinguishing system with a total foaming-agent supply of 10,500 litres distributed throughout two tanks, two submerged pumps in the port basin with a pump capacity of a hundred and eighty m3 per hour to make sure water provide for fireplace 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 provider. The feed-in of emergency power was effected by the local professional fire division.
The engineering agency, in contrast, had deliberate to switch the whole fire-extinguishing system. They needed to put in three mobile extinguishing-agent distribution methods in container kind for distant controlled sprinkling and foaming of the tanks. This resolution would have required the installation of recent electrical, operational and control methods as well as new pipe routes connecting the extinguishing-agent distribution methods with the fire-fighting systems within the tank fields. The costs for the three extinguishing-agent distribution methods in container form alone would have added as a lot as around 1.2 million euros.
Incipient fire fighting scenario with intact energy supply and free entry to the tank farm.
Implementation of three packages of measures
The different rehabilitation idea developed by TÜV SÜD, which additionally met the necessities of the Bavarian Building Code (BayBo [1]), supplied for 3 essential packages of measures to realize the protection and safety objectives.
First, set up of a fully automatic infrared measuring system made by DIAS Infrared to make sure early fireplace detection. The system’s seven thermographic cameras are installed on pan-tilt models. They detect modifications in temperature on the surfaces of the tanks made of various supplies and located within the space monitored by the cameras, before these modifications in temperature can cause a hearth. As the cameras can transfer, the areas to be monitored could be divided into sectors. The cameras then strategy these sectors cyclically in sequence. To protect the cameras against exterior influences, they’re housed in ventilated and heated weatherproof enclosures (Fig. 1). Monitoring focuses primarily on the security devices of the tanks, pumps and motors and on the filling techniques on the tank-farm premises. The control room on the tank farm and the native skilled fireplace department are notified immediately as soon because the temperature exceeds a certain restrict. The measure package deal additionally contains distant triggering of the extinguishing-agent provide from the management centre and automation of the protection devices.
Incipient fire preventing scenario 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 answer offered for alternative of the leaking and corroded pipe sections with new pipes and for installation of three fastened foam-extinguishing techniques within the form of foam monitors to fight incipient fires immediately. In addition, a cell foam monitor was deliberate as a backup.
A third focus space concerns safeguarding the ability provide required for early fireplace detection and fireplace preventing. According to the regional energy provider, power outages could have a period of a minimal of 30 minutes. Given this, the tank-farm wanted an impartial energy provide system that was able to ensure power supply for a minimal of 2 hours. The experts relied on battery buffering and a diesel operated emergency energy unit to resolve this downside.
Fire protection must guarantee achievement of the protection objectives
Protection aims and equivalent safety stage reached
The fire-protection solution offered by TÜV SÜD was agreed with each the tank farm’s working company, the municipal authority and the skilled fire division. The three measure packages additionally complied with the required safety aims and the protection levels. And in the end, they proved far cheaper than the solution initially proposed. Since rehabilitation of the tank farm, early fireplace detection at the facet of improved fire-protection infrastructure has turn out to be a central a half of damage limitation. Since the rehabilitation concept was applied, the tank-farm’s working firm – working with the skilled fireplace department – has been capable of effectively counteract all attainable scenarios of incipient fire effectively and at an early stage, even in circumstances of power loss or when access 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 beneath the Bavarian Building Code (Bayerische Bauordnung, BayBo)
Tank farms are installations of a particular kind and use (special structures). Their operation includes the dealing with and storing of highly explosive or flammable substances. Protection measures and security precautions thus not solely fall within the working company’s accountability but are additionally a matter of public curiosity. Given this, the BayBO stipulates requirements together with materials necessities which, as “General clauses of fire protection”, assist to support the protection goals defined in Article 12. However, based on article three (1) deviations from the technical constructing laws are potential if an alternate answer is discovered that’s equivalent by way of fulfilling the general requirements in paragraph 1. In different phrases, the requirements laid down in the Building Code are deemed complied with if the widely recognised guidelines of structure and know-how are fulfilled.
Share