How should the maritime transport industry manage the risks associated with electric or gas-powered vehicles? These issues are being discussed and investigated by participants in the RISE-led research project LASH FIRE.
"We are now addressing the next level of risks," says Martin Carlsson at Stena Teknik.
Throughout history, devastating ship fires have been a key issue for the maritime transport industry, but the electric vehicle boom has brought new perspectives to the problem. The issue is shrouded in considerable public interest and myth. Martin Carlsson, a naval architect and project manager at Stena Teknik, challenges the perception that electric vehicles are particularly flammable.
"Imagine if we only had electric cars and someone suggested we should run them on an incredibly flammable liquid instead. We would have to pour it into a tank that anyone could open and look into. If the car caught fire, the liquid would spill onto the tyres. There would have been an uproar. Now, the situation is reversed and it's just a matter of us being used to one thing and not the other," says Martin Carlsson, and continues:
"At LASH FIRE, we did a great job of presenting the facts as a counterbalance to the 'YouTube expertise' that leads the general public to believe electric car fires are common. While electric cars do have a different risk profile, the fire risk is not greater in quantitative terms. However, the uncertainty and fear surrounding electric car fires do pose a risk, as they cause people to hesitate to take action."
Electric cars are different in terms of risk, but the fire risk is not greater in quantitative terms.
Existing sprinkler systems are effective if they are activated in time.
In recent years, several ship fires have received considerable media attention. One such incident involved the MV Fremantle Highway, which caught fire off the coast of the Netherlands. In this instance, the fire was blamed on an electric vehicle, resulting in the death of one crew member.
The ship was equipped with a foam extinguishing system, which is one of the three standard solutions available today. The other two are sprinklers and carbon dioxide. But how effective are these systems at dealing with fires in electric vehicles?
"We addressed that question in LASH FIRE. Through testing, we found that sprinkler systems are just as effective at controlling fires in electric vehicles as they are in vehicles that run on fossil fuels. This is just one of the many insights to come out of the extensive European LASH FIRE project, which resulted in thousands of pages of reports and numerous follow-up projects", says Dr Franz Evegren, Head of the Fire Safety Transport Unit at RISE.
One of the follow-up projects examines the risks associated with refrigerated transport in depth. Around a third of all ship fires are linked to this type of vehicle. Fires can occur in the diesel generators used for cooling or when the truck is connected to the ship's electricity supply. RISE is continuing its research into the LASH FIRE concept of using a monitoring system with sensors.
"Another area we are pursuing is how to manually extinguish fires in electric vehicles. We have concluded that manual intervention is required in certain phases of the post-extinguishing work, but as soon as a fire has been verified, the fixed system should be activated," says Franz Evegren.
That change in thinking has not really taken hold globally. There is still some resistance to activating the fixed fire extinguishing system, as this can result in damage to other cargo and make the apparatus larger.
We have taken on the almost impossible task of answering the question of how to detect thermal runaway in a battery before it catches fire.
Providing the crew with new equipment and knowledge
Anna Karlsson, Fire Engineer and Researcher at RISE, explains that research is also being conducted in the field of detection.
"We have taken on the almost impossible task of figuring out how to detect a thermal runaway in a battery before it catches fire. If we could get early warnings through signatures such as heat, smoke, sound or radiation in a certain spectrum, we might also be able to take preventive action. If we come up with a solution, it would have a major impact on the entire industry", says Anna Karlsson.
Stena's ships now have two mobile sprinkler units on board, which can be placed near vehicles that are considered to be at increased risk, to enable local water cooling. This may be because an error code has been received or because one of the signs of thermal runaway mentioned by Anna Karlsson has been observed.
"As a result of LASH FIRE and other projects that were running in parallel, we developed a new list of measures for fire safety on board. The list includes new equipment, updated procedures and training that addresses new risks associated with electric and hydrogen vehicles. The equipment includes fire blankets for cars and new fire suits for our crew. The new suits provide better protection against the gases that can be emitted from a lithium-ion battery in thermal runaway", explains Martin Carlsson.
It is important that regulations change in line with the vehicle fleet
Martin Carlsson welcomes the rule changes that LASH FIRE and other projects on the same theme have led to.
"Those of us who were involved in LASH FIRE naturally believe that it is extremely important for regulations to change when the vehicles we load onto our ships do so. It is important to get everyone in the industry on board by setting a common minimum standard in order to eliminate the greatest risks," he says, adding:
"Stena is quite far ahead in terms of maturity, I would say. As we now tackle the next layer of risks, this involves, for example, dealing with other types of battery-powered vehicles, such as scooters, lorries and buses. We are also following ongoing activities at RISE concerning fire risks associated with ageing batteries, investigating the risk of gas explosions in connection with thermal runaway and testing gas sensors."
Regulations affecting the maritime industry.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is a United Nations agency that develops uniform international standards for maritime transport. The IMO has developed the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, which sets out safety rules at sea, and the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) convention, which establishes training and certification standards. The IMDG (International Maritime Dangerous Goods) Code regulates the transport of dangerous goods by sea and is therefore relevant to fire safety and vehicles with new energy sources.
LASH FIRE has contributed to, and continues to contribute to, updates in these regulations. These cover everything from fire prevention to containment and evacuation.
About LASH FIRE
LASH FIRE (Legislative Assessment for Safety Hazards of Fire and Innovations in Ro-ro ship Environment) was an EU project coordinated by RISE and ran between 2019 and 2023. The aim of LASH FIRE was to develop maritime fire safety solutions for vehicle-carrying ships through innovative technology, operations and applications. The project had 25 partners from 13 EU countries.
