Product/Service

ULC/ORD-C142.6,

Source: Enviro-Tec Inc.
The environmental movement born in the 1960s has increasingly heightened public awareness for the need to develop a new set of Standards and regulations which eventually led to a general upgrading of products used to protect the environment.
For seventy-seven years ULC has operated as an organization which provides the people of Canada with a link between Canadian regulatory Authorities, Insurance Agencies, Manufacturers and Suppliers.

The environmental movement born in the 1960s has increasingly heightened public awareness for the need to develop a new set of Standards and regulations which eventually led to a general upgrading of products used to protect the environment. We look to prevent disaster from happening by developing a set of requirements to provide criteria for environmentally safe products. As a result a series of ULC Documents dealing with spill control, have emerged.

Our latest development in the line of environment protection is Document ULC/ORD-C142.6, The Storage Vault, having the objective of determining the effectiveness of the storage vaults to contain spillage under the fire condition.

This Document currently under development, deals with Storage Vaults, which are used for the storage of containers, drums and portable tanks containing flammable and combustible liquids. The intention of the Document is to provide the minimum criteria for storage vaults' construction intended for outdoor installation. The material contained in this article presents information as well as fire testing experience which provides the bases for the development of test protocol for these types of products. Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada provided a test site at the Camp Borden training facilities, Barrie, Ontario. Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada also provided the test equipment, the fuel, technical coordination of the project, instrumentation, personnel to conduct the tests, and agreed to prepare the final report. Enviro-Tec Inc. provided the storage vault and materials handling equipment. The objective of the tests was to determine the effectiveness of the vault's constructions for containing flammable liquid spills when drums are exposed to an internal fire and to determine if the design criteria would be adequate to contain debris from any resulting explosion.

While the product design for the storage of flammable and combustible containers and drums was in general recognized, concerns remained with some Inspection Authorities if the design of the storage vault itself would provide adequate safety in the event of internal fire of the leaking product followed by the explosion of the stored containers. The review of known sources did not provide any test data related to this circumstance, therefore, it was concluded that tests should be conducted to determine if the design criteria would be adequate to contain debris from the fire resulting explosion and to prevent leaking product from reaching beyond the vault.

One typical sample of the storage vault was provided for the test. The vault's door, about 2 m x 2.5 m, was opened prior to the start of the tests to simulate condition conducive to an accidental fire may occurring. The test used a palletized arrangement of two rows by two rows, one above the other, with a 152 mm. separation between the rows to provide air flow. Four 200 L water-filled drums were placed one on each two-way 1320 mm square wood pallet. The fuel supply consisted of propane gas piped to the burners located inside the storage vault's sump simulating the spill. It was predetermined that at the calculated flow the burners would be able to provide 300 000 BTU. It was necessary to provide substantial temperature rise within a short period of the time to create a BLEVE condition.

Enviro-Tec Inc., Box 6239 4017 60th Ave, Innisfail, AB T4G 1S9. Tel: 403-227-5550; Fax: 403-227-5560.