Fuel Storage Safety

To reduce the dependence and use of fossil fuels, the development and use of various renewable energy sources are significantly increasing. To optimize the use of resources in the society there are also extensive requirements on recycling. This means an extensive sorting of waste for this to be used either as a source of raw materials or energy production. Overall, this development has, therefore, in recent years led to building of production systems for different types of biofuels and intermediate storages and logistic systems for handling waste to be recycled or incinerated.

The handling of biofuels covers very large quantities and a large part of this handling has to do with different kind of solid materials. The materials are often stored in large stacks and depending on the type of fuel it can either be located outdoors or indoors. Some dry material, such as wood pellets and wood powder, is also suitable for storage in silos at very high volumes. Storage in large stacks in itself is nothing new, but the increase in storage volumes locally at large intermediate storages or at large consumers presents new challenges. New storage technology is therefore needed for these high-grade fuels. Stocks often need to be located near or at a reasonable distance from buildings, eg adjacent to industrial or power plants. Other factors are the properties of the stored material, the size of the stacks and silos, combinations of baling and storage, where there are many questions about the fire risk problems. Unless this trend towards increased storage volumes of bio-fuels is accompanied by a relevant risk assessment and risk mitigation measures, there is a great risk that you "get stuck' in a system that can cause large costs in terms of direct and indirect damages from fire, explosions, etc.

RISE has for a number of years engaged in activities focused on safe storage of wood pellets and other solid biomass, waste, and various types of liquid fuels. On this basis we have created a competence platform to develop this area further. The goal of Fuel Storage Safety is to study and distribute information on all aspects of safety in the storage of fuels: risks, preventive work, ignition, flame propagation, detection, extinguishment, etc.

Applicable guidelines for safe storage of biomass and waste in order to prevent start and spread of fires and to facilitate firefighting operations at fires are to a large extent missing today. Our hope is that the work within Fuel Storage Safety will increase the knowledge in the field and contribute to the development of guidelines for safe storage of biofuels and waste.

We help companies, industry associations, government agencies, emergency rescue services, consultants and manufacturers of security equipment to gain new knowledge in order to maintain a reasonable level of safety.