RECYCLING & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Fire Safety Solutions for
Recycling and Waste Management

Recycling and waste management facilities are prone to fire hazards due to the presence of combustible materials, heavy machinery, and the continuous processing of various waste types.

Blazequel fire safety solutions aim to mitigate these risks through a comprehensive approach that encompasses prevention, detection, and response.

Typical Application Areas at Recycling Facilities

Tipping Halls & Bulk Storage Bays

Tipping Halls are a key risk area for waste and recycling facilities. You never really know what’s arriving in your tipping hall and any delivery could include a battery, gas canister, hot load or other hazard.

Large piles of flammable material and an ever-changing stockpile layout and height create a complex environment for detection and suppression of fires.

Our fire detection and suppression solutions are designed to provide reliable long-term protection in this harsh and ever-changing environment.

Common fire risks:

Hot or contaminated loads
Self-combustion in piles of stored materials.
Mobile shredders causing fires.

Challenges for fire protection:

Ever-changing volume of stored materials.
Deep seated fires can be difficult to detect with any detection system.
Harsh operational environment due to dust and damp humidity.

Typical fire protection measures:

Flame detection provides reliable and cost-effective protection.
Video smoke detection and thermal fire detection for early detection.
Automatic water cannons (e.g. Fire Rover) provide targeted suppression.
Sprinklers / Deluge systems for area coverage.

MRF Fire Protection

With complex building layouts involving conveyors, platforms and different items of machinery, MRFs pose unique challenges when it comes to effective fire protection solutions.

This creates both challenges and opportunities for Fire Protection Systems:

Common fire risks:

Tramp metal and high-energy processes
Ignition of damaged lithium-ion batteries
Mechanical failure of processing machinery

Challenges for fire protection:

Compact machinery layout create blind spots
Moving threats are often difficult for detection technologies to identify

Typical fire protection measures:

Video Smoke Detection or aspirating smoke detection enables identification of smoke rising through MRF machinery
Targeted detection systems focus on key items of machinery or areas within the process (more on this below under Process Line Protection)
Sprinkler systems provide effective fire protection around the process & machinery areas, whilst deluge systems should be applied to high-risk shredders, conveyors and storage bunkers.

Mobile Waste Shredders

Mobile shredders are commonly used in the Waste Industry in Tipping Halls either for primary shredding of material prior to entering the main plant or to create an end product.

This creates both challenges and opportunities for Fire Protection Systems:

Common fire risks:

Lithium-ion batteries, and other ignition sources in the waste stream.
Mechanical failure of the shredder.
Material exiting the shredder creating a stockpile of high risk flammable material.

Challenges for fire protection:

Mobile shredding operations regularly change position – making it challanging to ensure equal coverage of the risk at all times.
It is often impractical to integrate plant process stops with a mobile shredder, making the fire protection response less predictable.

Typical fire protection measures:

Flame detection mounted on the building structure
Automatic water cannons (e.g. Fire Rover) covers an area of the building, and thereby can protect the shredder anywhere within that area.
Automatic/Manual Deluge systems over a designated operational location.

Process Line Protection Systems

The mechanical treatment of waste material carries an inherent fire risk. The threat of batteries in the waste stream has accentuated these risks to a new height, making process lines one of the highest risks at recycling facilities.

Key items of machinery to protect include:

- - - Primary and Secondary shredders
    - Picking Lines
    - High-Risk Conveyors
    - Balers
    - Separators/Screens
    - Under-Process Bunkers

Check out this article on process line fire suppression – Process Line Fire Detection – Blazequel.com

Common fire risks:

Lithium-ion batteries
Other contaminants in the waste stream such as aerosols etc being ignited by heat/friction from the processes.
Mechanical failure of equipment, bearings, motors etc.

Challenges for fire protection:

Moving threats on process lines are often difficult for detection technologies to identify.
A fire risk can be carried through your process in minutes, spreading a fire to multiple locations.

Typical fire protection measures:

Flame Detection and Ember Detection for key items of machinery and conveyors.
Linear Heat Detection for high-risk materials bays.
Spark Detection for drop-chutes and process ducts.
Water mist or deluge systems for suppression over high-risk areas.

Pneumatic Transport & Dust Extract Systems

Pneumatic material transport and dust extract systems come with an inherent risk of fire and explosion, where sparks and hot objects could be carried into the bag filters. Our process-line fire suppression systems intercept and suppress these risks with no process interruption.

Common fire risks:

Sparks created by mechanical failure
Hot particles from overheated light material carried into ducts
Dust explosions caused by sparks mixed with airborne dust particles.

Typical fire protection measures:

Spark Detection for identifying hot particles
High-speed deluge suppression directly at the identified threat
Automatic or Manual Deluge over/within bag filters or stacks

MCC & Electrical Distribution

Recycling facilities incorporate a lot of switchgear and power distribution equipment. A fire in these operations-critical areas can cause massive operational disruption, so it is critical to have fire detection and suppression to protect this equipment.

Typical fire protection measures:

In-cabinet protection can be achieved by Linear Heat Detection or Aspirating Smoke Detection.
Room Detection can be achieved by point type Heat/Smoke Detectors
Gas or Aerosol Suppression can be used to suppress fires, either targeting a specific cabinet or filling the room.

External Storage Bays

External storage bays pose unique challenges for fire protection systems. This isn’t only from the material, but the operating environment which, combined with the inherent Waste Industry fire risk, is the perfect storm when choosing a suitable fire protection system.

Common fire risks:

Lithium-ion batteries and hot and/or contaminated loads.
Self-combustion in piles of stored materials.
Heating of material during summertime when exposed to intense sunlight and warm conditions.

Challenges for fire protection:

Environmental conditions, including rain, wind and sunlight can make detection challenging.
Ever-changing volume of stored materials makes detection and suppression challenging.
Deep seated fires can be hard to identify – with any detection system.

Typical fire protection measures:

Flame detection provides reliable detection
Thermal fire detection can provide an early warning of a developing fire.
The Fire Rover system, with the combination of detection technologies and a human operator, can overcome climatic challenges by rational decision-making, training and experience.

case studies

Explore our featured case studies to discover how we’ve revolutionized fire safety across various industries. From cutting-edge detection systems to emergency response strategies, each project highlights Blazequel’s commitment to excellence and creating safer environments.

AMGEN CYMRU

Blazequel designed, installed and commissioned a range of fire detection and control systems for all risk areas of this facility.

FORTRESS RECYCLING

This project involved the design, installation and commissioning of a fire protection system for a new-build MRF, processing DMR / C&I waste streams.

WKE

This project involved a full fire protection fit out for a new-build SRF Pelleting Plant. WKE take solid recovered fuel (SRF) and process it through their state-of-the-art facility to produce SIRF Pellets – which are an alternative to traditional fuels for the cement, power, steel and brick industries.

Typical Hazards:

Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Risks

Recycling facilities are at a greater risk than ever from fires, with the influx of lithium-ion batteries from portable electronics to EV’s, and everything in between. These fires can erupt with little warning from almost anywhere around your facility – from the tipping floor, to the process lines, and storage bunkers under your MRF!

About Blazequel

At Blazequel, we’ve been working with recycling facilities for over 10 years. We’ve made it our business to understand your processes and risks. Each facility has a different risk profile, which may require a different fire safety approach based on materials, process type and budget. We provide solutions for all risk areas, from WTS facilities and tipping halls to MRF’s. No two systems are the same. Oftentimes, the ideal solution is a combination of multiple fire protection technologies.