Fire Equipment

Mobile fire equipment should be inspected, tested, and maintained in accordance with manufacturer s recommendations. Additional NFPA standards that may contain inspection, test and maintenance information are  

Periodic inspection and testing maximizes the useful life of the fireproofing system. The manufacturer or applier may be invited to participate in the inspection. An inspection and testing program should include the following steps  

Timely and consistent maintenance provides assurance that the system is physically in the condition intended. When more than hairline cracking appears, the openings should be cleaned out and filled with new material according to the manufacturer s instructions. Loss of bonding to the substrate may be detected by surface bulges or an abnormal sound when the surface is tapped with a light hammer. 

In evident areas of bond failure, fireproofing should be removed and the substrate should be thoroughly cleaned and properly primed before new material is applied. If surface coating is required to prevent moisture from penetrating, it should be renewed at intervals recommended by the manufacturer. The previously listed inspections should be completed prior to renewal of coating so that defects are not hidden by the coating. 

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So//i/ fuels. Large coal-fired equipment normally uses pulverized fuel blown into the combustion chamber by a blast of air, similar to oil droplets. 

Indirect-Fired Equipment (Fired Heaters) Indirect-fired combustion equipment (fired heaters) transfers heat across either a metallic or refractory wall separating the flame and products of combustion from the process stream. Examples are heat exchangers (dis-... 

Coil Design Indirect-fired equipment is conventionally classified by tube orientation vertical and horizontal. Although there are many variations of each of these two principal configurations, they all are embraced within seven major types, as follows. 

Review layout for fire equipment access, and secondary and emergency exit roads from each area. 

Steam Generator Produces steam from condensate or boiler feedwater by combustion of waste oil, tars, or off-gas in direct-fired equipment. 

These have been partly covered in Section 19.7.2. All gas-fired equipment should be designed to ignite, operate and shut down in a safe manner. Instructions to this effect should be clearly displayed. This is a requirement of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. In addition, such plant should comply with all relevant standards. 

All staff involved with maintaining gas-fired equipment should be capable of doing so in a safe and responsible manner. The term competent has not yet been defined in this context, but personnel should be qualified by both training and experience to carry out work on any plant which they are to maintain. 

Code of Practice No. 4, Safe and Satisfactory Operation of Propane-Fired Bitumen Boilers, Mastic Asphalt Cauldrons/Mixers, and Hand Tools Code of Practice No. 7, Storage of Full and Empty LPG Cylinders and Cartridges Code of Practice No. 9, LPG-Air Plants Code of Practice No. 10, Recommendations for Safe Handling of LPG in Small Trailer Mounted Vessels, Skid Tanks and Small Bulk Storage Vessels Permanently Attached to Mobile Gas-fired Equipment... 

Code of Practice No. 10, Part 1 (first stage of revision), Containers Attached to Mobile Gas-fired Equipment Code of Practice No. 20, Safe handling of LPG used as an Internal Combustion Engine Fuel for Motor Vehicles Code of Practice No. 12, Safe filling of LPG cylinders at depots... 

The chamber is externally insulated and clad. Combustion equipment for solid fuel may be spreader or traveling-grate stokers or by pulverized fuel or fluid bed. Oil and gas burners may be fitted either as main or auxiliary firing equipment. The boilers will incorporate superheaters, economizers and, where necessary, air preheaters, grit arresters, and gas-cleaning equipment to meet clean air legislation. 

In the composite boiler, a watertube chamber directly connected to a single-pass shell boiler forms the combustion space housing the fluid bed. In order to fluidize the bed the fan power required would be greater than that with other forms of firing equipment. 

Multi-fuel operation with coal-firing equipment is more difficult to achieve, partly because the grate obscures some of the boiler heating surfaces and partly due to the volume that it also occupies. Systems do exist for this requirement, but changeover is not as instant as oil and gas, as it is normally necessary to remove part of the coal-firing equipment. 

The potential to recover heat from the gases of an oil- or coal-fired boiler is therefore limited to a temperature drop from 240°C to 170°C. This results in a 3 per cent saving. The average saving would be somewhat lower than this since fouling of the economizer surface is inevitable from the carbonaceous emissions of the firing equipment. 

Where gas or oil appliances are used for heating and installed within the heated space, between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of the total energy content of the fuel input will be converted into useful heat. Table 27.15 gives particulars of some gas-fired equipment types and Table 27.16 gives similar details for some oil-fired heaters. The first three types of equipment detailed in Table 27.15 and the first two in Table 27.16 are usually used for local warming of individuals rather than to provide a particular temperature throughout the space. 

Fire equipment Fire alarm and fire-fighting equipment must be regularly inspected, maintained and tested Portable extinguishers to have designated locations/be of correct type. Instructions must be provided as to where and how to use them. Practice is necessary... 

J. Use of fired heaters the presence of boilers or furnaces, heated by the combustion of fuels, increases the probability of ignition should a leak of flammable material occur from a process unit. The risk involved will depend on the siting of the fired equipment and the flash point of the process material. The factor to apply is determined with reference to Figure 6 in the Dow Guide. 

Protection of fired equipment (heaters, furnaces) against accidental explosion and fire. 

Every precaution should be taken to prevent the disruption of utilities, since this could mean the failure of pumps, agitators, and instrumentation. For this reason, it may also be wise to separate the boilers and furnaces from the other utilities. Then, should the fired equipment explode, the other utilities will not be damaged. 

A variety of other gases are also given off by burning materials In two studies fire fighters went to address actual buildings on fire, equipped with combustion product monitors [40, 41]. Both studies had the same conclusions the overwhelming hazardous toxicant in a fire is carbon monoxide. 

Use of fired equipment No fired equipment is present, so the penalty is zero. 

The frequently used Dow Fire Explosion Hazard Index (1987) gives penalties for fired equipment and certain specified rotating equipment. These are a part of the Special Process Hazards term of the Dow Index. 

Fired equipment will have penalties, if the material in process unit near the air intake of fired heater could be released above its boiling point, if the material is a combustible dust, or if the material could be released above its boiling point. The penalty depends on the distance from the possible leak source and it varies between 0.1 and 1.0. For instance the distance of 15 m gives the penalties 0.27 (above the flash point) and 0.60 (above the boiling point). Any situation involving a material processed below its flash point receives no penalty. 

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