Methanol-Fueled Ships Require New Fireplace Security Measures, New Research Exhibits

Whereas the rising curiosity in methanol-fueled vessels has been rising exponentially as a way of addressing the emissions, new fireplace security analysis experiences that the prevailing fire-fighting methodologies and rules aren’t but prepared for methanol vessels.

Per Survitec, which had performed exhaustive fireplace checks on the dual-fuel marine engines with diesel oil (abbreviated because the DO) and methanol, present fire-fighting strategies used for extinguishing the equipment house spray and pool fires on conventionally fueled vessels aren’t satisfactory when coping with methanol-based fires.

The checks additionally confirmed that conventional water mist fireplace suppression fashions don’t carry out as anticipated on methanol pool and methanol spray fires, defined Michal Sadzynski, the Product Supervisor of Water Mist Methods at Survitec. Methanol fires are way more aggressive than fires involving standard hydrocarbon fuels.

Methanol fires are inclined to have physicochemical properties, in order that they can’t be extinguished rapidly or with the identical method.

Methanol is methyl alcohol (CH3OH). It burns otherwise than hydrocarbon fuels and has a considerably decrease flashpoint of 12°C, per Survitec. They’ve additionally reported that the testing has found that when the water mist techniques are extremely efficient in absorbing the warmth and displacing the oxygen on diesel fires, they don’t produce the identical outcomes on methanol fires.

Survitec says the priority concerning fire-fighting and protocols could also be notably important because the transport trade begins contemplating changing present vessels to methanol. For the time being, there are solely a comparatively few methanol-fueled vessels in service, with a key give attention to new builds particularly designed for different gasoline.

Now, the trade is beginning to discover retrofits. Maersk, for example, has additionally scheduled the first-ever refit of an enormous containership for the summer time in an illustration task to take a decade-old vessel that operates on conventional fuels and convert it for dual-fuel methanol operations.

In response to the agency, the testing outcomes exhibit that if present vessels are retrofitted to function on methanol, they might want to overhaul and completely redesign the fastened fire-fighting mannequin.

Sadzynski defined that the checks replicate that the usual discharge units don’t correctly extinguish methanol pool fires within the confined bilge space. He additionally cites that, for example of the problems, the vary required for nozzle set up peak is considerably decrease than that wanted to place out a diesel fireplace. The hour must fully reimagine nozzle spacing, placement, and different components to make water mist suppression efficient on the methanol.

Survitec additionally highlights that whereas some fireplace security rules and testing requirements exist for diesel fuels, exact check mechanisms for alcohol-based fuels similar to ethanol and methanol have but to be developed. In response to Sadzynski, that is believed to be a high-risk state of affairs that requires speedy motion.

The agency has been calling on regulators and stakeholders to handle methanol’s fireplace dangers and create requirements, new testing protocols, and up to date stringent security rules for methanol.

Reference: Marine Hyperlink

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