Industrial & Manufacturing

Chemical Storage

Typically, in a chemical storage environment, there are flammable and other volatile substances so fires or explosions are more likely to occur when vapours or liquids are released from a controlled environment to areas where there may be an ignition source, or, alternatively, when an ignition source is introduced into a controlled environment. Incidents involving flammable liquids commonly arise during transfer operations, including movement from storage, decanting or dispensing, movement within premises, and dealing with spillages. Contents can include harmful substances such as sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid and other explosive gases, so it is critical that no water is used in a potential fire suppression solution, in this instance we would install an inert gas system or an Aerosol system.

Inert Gas
Inert gas systems extinguish a fire by lowering Oxygen levels (which are typically around the 21% mark) within a protected area, but within ‘safe for life support’ limitations.

Aerosol System
The Aerosol agent is usually housed either in a fixed cylindrical (small to medium areas) or square (large areas) container and activated through an electrical current introduced via, for example, a control panel.