Methanol Fueled Ships

While interest in methanol-fueled ships is growing rapidly as a means of addressing emissions, a new fire safety study reports that existing fire-fighting methods and regulations are not ready for methanol ships.  According to Survitec which conducted extensive comparative fire tests on dual-fuel marine engines using diesel oil (DO) and methanol, existing fire-fighting methods used to extinguish machinery space spray and pool fires on conventionally fueled vessels are inadequate when dealing with methanol-based fires. “Our tests confirm that traditional water mist fire suppression mechanisms do not perform as expected on methanol pool fires and methanol spray fires,” said Michal Sadzynski, Product Manager, Water Mist Systems, Survitec. “Methanol fires are far more aggressive than fires involving traditional hydrocarbon fuels. Methanol fires have different physicochemical properties and so they cannot be extinguished as easily or with the same approach.” Methanol is a methyl alcohol (CH3OH) that burns in a completely different way than hydrocarbon fuels and has a much lower flashpoint of 12°C (54°F), according to Survitec. They report their testing found that while water mist systems are highly effective in absorbing heat and displacing oxygen on diesel fires, they…