ENHANCED FIRE PROTECTION FOR MARINE APPLICATIONS

摘要

The requirements for on-board fire protection systems for sea-going vessels are, in many ways, the same as those for land-based installations. The system must be capable of extinguishing a fire rapidly, be safe for personnel in the vicinity, and it must be clean in operation so that residues from the extinguishing agent itself do not add to the damage caused by the fire. Marine applications do, however, have additional requirements. The extinguishing agent must be easy to transport, and it must take up the least amount of storage space. Ideally, it should also be possible to recharge the system while the vessel is at sea to quickly restore operations and maintain protection even after a fire. For many years, the extinguishing agent that came closest to meeting these requirements was Halon, and it was very widely used. Indeed, many existing shipboard installations are still Halon-based. Halon, however, has severe environmental shortcomings - it causes significant damage to the ozone layer and has a high global warming potential.