Imperial Cold logistics

Inergen® inert gas provides 24/7 fire security in cold storage

In today’s competitive consumer market companies have been forced to re-evaluate the logistics surrounding packaging and handling of products. This has greatly shifted the focus towards fewer, larger storage facilities. But now with everything under one (very large) roof, how is it best protected?

The solution is implemented by Fire Eater in partnership with Fire and Security Techniques, South Africa.

Cold storage warehouses present specific fire protection challenges:

Shelving needs to be closely spaced to optimise usage, but this creates tight spaces for fire suppresant to penetrate.
Food colouring and other products within frozen foods are flammable, frozen foods themselves are often classified as a class I or Class II commodity.
The cardboard packaging of the products is also combustible; the cold air dries the cardboard making it more flammable than usual.

To protect the products for the consumer the area needs to be kept at a very cold temperature but upholding such temperature is a hazard in itself:

The equipment required in warehouse supply chains such as rubber tires, rolled paper, carpets, baled fibre, lift truck batteries and lighting, are all highly combustible.
High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lighting (halide lamps, mercury vapour, and high- pressure sodium lamps) are also combustible. Internal temperature of this lighting can reach 1,000 degrees.
In order to maintain the temperature of a refrigerated warehouse, polyurethane and polystyrene foam are often used as insulators.
Ammonia-based refrigeration equipment is common within a refrigerated warehouse. In concentrations of 15-28%, ammonia is flammable.

Solution

There are many challenges fitting fire protection within this type of facility. Conventional wet systems pose several problems, not least the fact that sprinkler or water systems have height restrictions on nozzle placement and movable shelving systems have to be worked around.

To overcome these challenges, a Fire Eater Inergen inert gas system was proposed as the best fire protection solution for this cold store.

I Inergen suppresses fires and reduces the amount of oxygen in the application to 10-12% when discharged. It is safe for the operator to be in the discharge area and evacuate safely as Inergen does not obscure visibility and does not ice up and possibly jam up escape routes.
I The pipework is installed in the risk area with minimum penetrations. Inergen behaves like a three-dimensional extinguishing agent and therefore does not require the discharge nozzle to be mounted in-rack.
I High-pressure pipework was installed according to local standards and conformity to the Pressure Equipment Regulation PER. 630 cylinders were used in conjunction with selector valves to distribute the correct concertations of Inergen to the required risk

Result

Due to the outstanding performance characteristics of the Inergen system, Imperial Cold Logistics now has one of the continent’s largest, state of the art, fire-protected cold stores in Midrand Johannesburg.

By using a Fire Eater Inergen system, all risk criteria was met and the project accelerated by five months.

Facts

Client

IMPERIAL Cold Logistics

Location

Johannesburg, South Africa

Industry sector

Logistics

Protected area

11 off storage cells ranging in temperatures from -18 to-32°C
Approximately 300,000m3 total space protected

This is how the solution is composed

630 off 80 ltr cylinders @ 300 bar
102 off SV22 selector valves
615 off nozzles
Over 5000m of pipe

Implemented by

Fire Eater in partnership with Fire and Security Techniques, South Africa

Inergen® inert gas provides 24/7 fire security in cold storage

In today’s competitive consumer market companies have been forced to re-evaluate the logistics surrounding packaging and handling of products. This has greatly shifted the focus towards fewer, larger storage facilities. But now with everything under one (very large) roof, how is it best protected?

Cold storage warehouses present specific fire protection challenges:

To protect the products for the consumer the area needs to be kept at a very cold temperature but upholding such temperature is a hazard in itself:

Solution

Result

Facts

Other customer cases

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E.ON Kemsley

Frederiksborg Castle

The Supreme Court

If you want to know more about Inergen and our solutions, write to us.