Tank farms are used for the storage of extremely flammable and explosive substances; Consequently, preventive fire safety is of major importance. When rehabilitation of such a tank farm is deliberate, contractors often recommend in depth – and thus costly – measures. A fire-protection resolution developed by TÜV SÜD demonstrates that an equivalent level of security may also be reached with a much more cost-effective resolution. A central position in damage limitation is performed by early fire detection using thermographic cameras.
Numerous tank farms throughout Germany store petrol, diesel, kerosene or liquefied petroleum fuel (LPG). In contact with air, these extremely flammable substances can form explosive mixtures. Given this, tank farms require special measures in the subject of preventive fireplace safety. If rehabilitation of fire-protection methods becomes necessary at an older tank farm, far-reaching measures should be taken, not only by way of precaution but in addition to exclude attainable legal responsibility dangers. And yet not each measure that is technologically feasible can be needed in case of a rehabilitation, as could 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 part of the tank farm in want of rehabilitation covers 24 tanks with a storage volume of between 600 and a couple of,000 cubic metres. The tank farm is used for intermediate storage of highly flammable fluids with flame factors of < 21 levels Celsius, as outlined within the German hazardous substances legislation. In hearth inspections and on-site inspections after incidents, the inspectors had recognized major non-conformities in the fire-extinguishing system. To substitute the outdated and non-conforming system, an engineering firm submitted an intensive list of measures. These measures absolutely happy all regulatory necessities but represented a very cost-intensive answer, requiring a full rehabilitation utilizing traditional extinguishing methods. For the tank-farm working firm, the costs of implementing these measures would have added up to 1.7 million euros.
In hearth safety, the challenge lies in connecting well-founded technological information and legal know-how. In follow this implies harmonising cheap engineering providers and legal functions to obtain a cohesive, economically possible and easily carried out fire-protection idea.
Alternative solution developed by TÜV SÜD
At the operating 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 firm. Owing to the massive number of deficiencies identified within the tank farm, the consultants first ready a listing of priorities with the measures necessary to fulfil the protection necessities and obtain the protection goals. They arrived on the conclusion that not all of the proposed measures really wanted to be carried out. Starting from this finding, they then drew up an alternate fire-protection idea that would ultimately cut back the projected costs 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 ensure water provide for fire preventing and sprinkling the shells and the roofs of the tanks, handbook triggering of the shut-off valves and a transformer station powered by the regional vitality supplier. The feed-in of emergency energy was effected by the local skilled fireplace department.
The engineering firm, by contrast, had planned to exchange the whole fire-extinguishing system. They wished to install three cell extinguishing-agent distribution techniques in container kind for remote managed sprinkling and foaming of the tanks. This solution would have required the set up of latest electrical, operational and management methods as well as new pipe routes connecting the extinguishing-agent distribution systems with the fire-fighting methods in the tank fields. The costs for the three extinguishing-agent distribution techniques in container type alone would have added as a lot as round 1.2 million euros.
Incipient fireplace fighting scenario with intact power provide and free entry to the tank farm.
Implementation of three packages of measures
The different rehabilitation idea developed by TÜV SÜD, which also met the requirements of the Bavarian Building Code (BayBo [1]), supplied for three essential packages of measures to realize the safety and security aims.
First, set up of a completely automated infrared measuring system made by DIAS Infrared to make sure early fire detection. The system’s seven thermographic cameras are put in 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, earlier than these changes in temperature could cause a fireplace. As the cameras can transfer, the areas to be monitored could be divided into sectors. The cameras then method these sectors cyclically in sequence. To protect the cameras against external influences, they are 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 local skilled fireplace division are notified immediately as soon as the temperature exceeds a sure restrict. The measure bundle also includes distant triggering of the extinguishing-agent supply from the management centre and automation of the safety devices.
Incipient hearth preventing situation with power loss where access 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 replacement of the leaking and corroded pipe sections with new pipes and for installation of three fixed foam-extinguishing systems in the type of foam monitors to battle incipient fires instantly. In addition, a cellular foam monitor was deliberate as a backup.
A third focus space concerns safeguarding the ability supply required for early hearth detection and fireplace preventing. According to the regional energy provider, energy outages could have a length of at least 30 minutes. Given this, the tank-farm needed an unbiased energy supply system that was able to ensure power supply for a minimal of 2 hours. The specialists relied on battery buffering and a diesel operated emergency energy unit to unravel this downside.
Fire protection must guarantee achievement of the protection objectives
Protection goals and equivalent security degree reached
The fire-protection solution offered by TÜV SÜD was agreed with both the tank farm’s working company, the municipal authority and the skilled fireplace department. The three measure packages also complied with the required safety goals and the safety levels. And in เกจวัดแรงดันน้ําไทวัสดุ , they proved far cheaper than the solution initially proposed. Since rehabilitation of the tank farm, early fire detection at the side of improved fire-protection infrastructure has turn out to be a central part of injury limitation. Since เกจวัดแรงดันน้ำราคา was implemented, the tank-farm’s operating firm – working with the skilled fire department – has been able to effectively counteract all attainable eventualities of incipient fireplace effectively and at an early stage, even in circumstances of energy loss or when access to the tank farm is blocked (see Figures 2 and 3).
For extra info, 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 particular type and use (special structures). Their operation involves the handling and storing of extremely explosive or flammable substances. Protection measures and safety precautions thus not only fall within the working company’s responsibility however are additionally a matter of public interest. Given this, the BayBO stipulates necessities together with materials necessities which, as “General clauses of fireplace protection”, assist to help the safety aims outlined in Article 12. However, based on article 3 (1) deviations from the technical constructing rules are possible if an alternative solution is discovered that’s equal by method of fulfilling the final necessities in paragraph 1. In other words, the necessities laid down within the Building Code are deemed complied with if the widely recognised guidelines of architecture and expertise are fulfilled.
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