BREND 2.0 – fighting fires in new energy carriers on deck 2.0
Series: RISE Report ; 2022:47Publication details: Borås : RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, 2022Description: 44 sISBN:- 9789189561861
The automotive industry is switching to new energy carriers such as biogas, hydrogen, or batteries. There are different types of ships that carry vehicles, they are so called ro-ro ships. The vehicles carried onboard are in ro-ro spaces. The project BREND investigated risk with alternative fuel vehicles inside ro-ro spaces. An issue with ro-ro spaces is that toxic fire smoke can accumulate inside the enclosure and the pressure from explosions are maintained for longer distances than in the open. BREND 2.0 has investigated two of the major risks identified in BREND, namely the risk of toxic gases from electric vehicle (EV) fires and the risk of a pressure vessel explosion for fire exposed biogas or hydrogen vehicle tanks. Toxic gases are found in combustion products for all type of vehicle fires. For EVs, the presence of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in combustion gases when li-ion batteries burn has sparked a major concern due to the toxicity of HF, despite the fact that these batteries rarely initiate vehicle fires and are difficult to ignite. Simulations of electric vehicle fires inside a ro-ro space based on real input fire data has been performed.