Abstract
FoamFatale™ technology makes it possible to make a huge step forward in protecting the environment against the damaging effects of storage tank fires.
The highest level of protecting the environment is provided by successful prevention.
The primary environmental effect is caused by the fire itself. In addition to the value of the material destroyed by the fire, the environment as such, our common treasure also suffers. In the majority of cases the combustion products are highly damaging to our health. By burning fossil fuels the composition of the atmosphere changes, since carbon stored for millions of years in solid or liquid form is again released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide gas. And since uncontrolled fires always result in incomplete combustion all kind of by-products are also released into the atmosphere.
The secondary environmental effect is caused by the use of extinguishing materials.
The usage of very large quantities of firewater can cause environmental damages, when the polluted water cannot be collected properly and subsequently treated before it is released into the environment.
The use of artificial extinguishing materials always causes environmental pollution. The level of pollution, i.e. the secondary environmental effect depends largely on the quality of the extinguishing material used and on the application technology, because these two factors define the quantity of the material necessary to extinguish a given fire.
And depending on the degree and speed of natural decomposition of the used extinguishing materials into harmless components, the period the environment is under strain is determined.
We call a fire fighting technology "environmentally friendly" when it uses only natural extinguishing materials (water and gases, like nitrogen or argon, which are extracted from air).
We call a technology "environmentally aware" when it uses artificial (but not hazardous) materials for the extinguishment, but when compared to other technologies the application will result in:
- the shortest period of time between outbreak of the fire and extinguishment
- highly efficient and effective use of extinguishing agent
Setting up and managing proper fire protection facilities on hydrocarbon storage facilities operating under extreme conditions nearly always requires a non-traditional approach. The traditional method is not suitable when there are no firewater sources available. Examples are sites operating a substantial part of the year under very low ambient temperatures, but also storage sites in arid desert areas. Other examples are mobile military fuel storage facilities, which have no access to a high performance firewater network.
In some cases the owner has no choice but to operate without any fire protection.
In very low temperature situations it would be prohibitively expensive to build, maintain and operate firewater networks with heated reservoirs and pipelines. Such facilities are typically required when using the traditional fire protection methods as recommended by e.g. NFPA.
Completely new foam making and foam application method was developed, which fully solves the firewater related problems described above. This is the FoamFatale™ technology. The automatic and autonomous FoamFatale™ responds immediately after the ignition and does not require any external supply of water or energy to operate.
It is considered to be representative of the Best Available Technology today. The fire surface is totally covered in maximum two minutes from the ignition, thus there is no time for the development of environmentally dangerous smoke or soot and the stored material is also saved.
