Fagus-GreCon recommends infrared fire detection

Germany-based fire prevention and firefighting equipment company Fagus-GreCon has issued a white paper recommending its infrared detectors as a tactic to suppress fires in recycling facilities before they become major incidents.

In its 15-page white paper, the company says that spark and ember detection systems already are installed on hundreds of recycling facilities across the world (Fagus-GreCon says 300,000 of its detectors are deployed globally), but “there are hundreds more that could benefit from their use.”

States Fagus-GreCon, “Using infrared sensors to detect the kinetic energy irradiated from sparks, embers, and hot particles, the presence of ignition sources can be detected within the recycling process.”

The firm lists several locations within a plant where such sensors can be helpful, including “outfeed from conveyors, trommels, and dryers; transfer points between mechanical conveyors; [and] ducting in dust extraction systems.”

Such detectors, says Fagus-GreCon “can identify a single spark or ember, allowing for mitigatory action to be initiated before a fire can take hold.”

As to the scale of the problem, Fagus-GreCon says in the United Kingdom alone, the National Fire Chiefs

Council (NFCC) reported more than 4,300 waste or recycling facility fires between 2001 and 2013. More than three-quarters of these, says the firm, “were on regulated sites [where] permitting regimes were in place specific to the waste operations and installations.”

In the report, Fagus-GreCon notes lithium-ion batteries “continue to present a challenge in extinguishing or suppressing the [fire] risk they pose.” GreCon says it has experience designing systems to identify where a detected ignition source or fire results from a battery in a thermal runaway condition, and it has worked with operators “to de-risk the downstream processes and storage areas.”

The Fagus-GreCon white paper can be downloaded from this web page.