Fire Safety of Waste Storage

Abstract

The EC Directive on landfill of waste and the development of different national regulations, together with the need and interest for biofuels, have resulted in more extensive handling and storage of these products. Calorific value and bulk density are for most fractions lower than for example oil, which translates into a further increase in volumes of fuel needed for a given amount of energy. Since the material is to be used as a high-grade fuel, higher requirements are placed on the storage technology. There will also probably be strong desire to place stocks in direct connection with for example a specific industry or co-generation plant, to minimize the need for transport. Overall, this means that very large production and handling facilities with large stocks will be required. These new types of storages also mean new types of risks. There is therefore a great need for knowledge on the risks for spontaneous ignition, fire characteristics, and risk for fire spread for these fuels and storages. If a fire occurs it can lead to significant problems with emissions and in many cases the rescue services have problems with handling these fires. These fires can also lead to large economic losses. It is, therefore, important to know both how to avoid and how to facilitate extinguishment of these fires. In the paper some trends regarding storage of waste are discussed together with the risks for self-heating and emissions. Experiences from real fires are presented and some existing guidelines for storage of waste are discussed.