New fire detection technologies developing at speed

Shipboard fires, particularly on container ships, hit the headlines far too frequently, but new detection systems currently under development at SafetyTech Accelerator promise to alert mariners far more effectively and save valuable minutes that could make a vital difference in fire response. Fires on ships at sea can be catastrophic, leading to loss of life and vast structural damage that is the nightmare of many, especially marine insurers.

Introducing a webinar on the subject yesterday, 13 Nov the UK P&I Club’s Director, Safety & Risk Management, Stuart Edmonston, said that there are ships being built today that will be commissioned in the months ahead with “fire detection systems that were designed 30, 35, 40 years ago”.

Many of them will carry cargoes that have an inherent fire risk. Fifteen of these have been identified by the Cargo Integrity Group, a supply chain safety consultancy, six of which pose a threat to container fires. P&I Clubs, he said, have already seen fires this year originating from cargoes such as charcoal, calcium hypochlorite, lithium batteries, cotton, wool, fish meal, and seed cake.Early detection is essential, Edmonston said: “If we can detect them early, we can deal with them early … that will result in less fires getting out of control,” with obvious implications for the safety of ships’ crews. The TT Club’s Loss Prevention Managing Director, Mike Yarwood, stressed the fact that the unfortunate seafarers who are typically the first responders to these incidents have no control over the cargo that is stowed in containers – how it’s declared, how it’s packaged, stowed and secured. Ships’ crews are often left in the unenviable task of fighting the fire potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from further assistance.

Seb Corby is a Principal Consultant at Safety Accelerator, an ‘innovation consultancy’ set up by Lloyd’s Register and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation six years ago. He is closely involved with early fire detection technologies, which hold the key to a dramatic advance in ship safety in the future. They are developing fast, but it is likely to be several years before new ships come off the blocks with such systems, or existing ships are retrofitted. “Our mission, or one of our missions,” Corby explained, "is to make the world safer. But from a practical perspective, our mission is to enable businesses, organisations, to make really good decisions about the technology they invest in. We have quite a lot of evidence to suggest that what we do is working.

A system installed around a single cargo hold on a ship deployed on a three-and-a-half month series of voyages had a test container capable of being heated to different temperatures located in the middle of the ship. Not only could the system detect temperature changes; it could also identify the exact position of the container in the hold. Other technologies under development include multi-gas sensors which identify a range of gases long before smoke can be detected, enabling an early response. In tests, fires were detected inside containers within a few minutes. A third possibility is an e-nose and a predicted AI model to interpret a certain smell, once again long before these is any sign of smoke. The e-nose could pick up changes within minutes, compared with a smoke detector’s half-an-hour or longer.

Early detection of fires involving lithium ion batteries has particular significance for the maritime industry, as the fires increase in heat rapidly and emit large volumes of toxic gases which pose a threat to the health of seafarers. Corby described the fourth technology as disruptive, ‘not just in name, but in what it does’. It’s based on wi-fi and radio waves. If the radio wave changes between the transmitter and the receiver, the technology can detect minute changes in cargo form, temperature, pressure, release of gas almost as accurately as a sensor placed inside a container. “We’re talking about half a degree to a degree change in temperature – and the technology is able to detect that,” he said.

SafetyTech’s ‘anchor partners’ which are participating in this programme include Evergreen, HMM, Maersk, the Offen Group, Ocean Network Express, and Seaspan.