Patent Application
20170335587
This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for storing hazardous materials such as chemicals used at production facilities.
It is important to assure that solvents, lubricants, paint-related products and similar hazardous materials employed at production facilities are handled and stored with adequate safeguards. Adequate safeguards are generally defined by a set of safety or fire code requirements with the goal to provide a level of protection from fire and safety hazards. An inspection and certification process needs to be successfully passed to meet these requirements. Typically, the size of a building is the main trigger from a fire code perspective for an automatic fire suppression system. One type of automatic fire suppression system comprises water sprinklers, which in turn requires connection to a water source using water pipes. The associated water pipes are commonly required to be trenched underground at sufficient depth (around at least 3 feet below ground surface) to protect from freezing. Often the water pipes are required to be made from corrosion-resistant materials, such as cement-lined iron piping.
Currently, depending on the size and occupancy of a storage building, it can be subject to stricter safety or fire code requirements, such as the provision of a smoke detector, the provision of a 24/7 fire monitoring alarm with associated monthly fees, and recurrent (every 6 months, for example) fire inspection by a fire marshal.
In particular, the storage facility should be constructed to achieve the following: (a) avoid any direct contact between an ignition source and the stored hazardous materials; (b) avoid contact between two incompatible hazardous materials; (c) avoid environmental pollution subsequent to a spill in the installation; (d) prevent rapid flame spread within the structure or occupancy; and (e) in the event of an accident, fire or explosion, prevent propagation of damage to outside the boundaries of the installation. Even small spills and relatively minute leakages of hazardous material can detrimentally affect personnel, property, plants, animals, groundwater and other aspects of ecology and environment.
It is known to provide safety enclosures of a type that is referred to as secondary containment buildings, namely, walk-in storage structures that have walls and roofs that typically are formed from metal, that typically are used to store containers of hazardous materials, and that customarily are provided with sump-type secondary containment vessels into which spillage and leakage are directed for temporary collection and safe disposal.
In accordance with one solution located outside an existing production facility, containers of hazardous material are stored on shelves inside a relatively expensive non-portable leak-proof building which is equipped with smoke/fire detectors, alarms, an automatic fire suppression system, and spill/deluge waste containment. The installation and maintenance of water sprinklers and fire detectors increases the costs associated with such buildings.
In addition, the placement of a storage building for storing hazardous materials outside a production facility requires that personnel who want to use a hazardous material at a stall inside the production facility must travel back and forth between the storage building and the stall. For example, some hazardous materials are prohibited from being outside the climate-controlled storage facility for more than a specified time duration (e.g., one hour). As a result, someone must return the hazardous material to the storage facility upon expiration of the specified time duration. The distances traveled during trips back and forth between a stall and the storage facility represent lost time and reduced productivity.
A further disadvantage is that the current deployment of storage containers in a non-portable building renders the facility configuration layout inflexible (i.e., not readily reconfigurable). Any relocation of the storage unit will require remodeling of the facility to re-route water pipes (for example) and multiple inspection visits by the fire department.
Another solution to the problem of storing hazardous or flammable materials is to deploy much smaller noncombustible cabinets, such as the ones described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,172,344, throughout the facility. However, these do not provide adequate temperature- and humidity-controlled protection of the stored products. In some instances, the chemical composition of stored hazardous materials can be adversely impacted by temperature change and thus spoiled and unable to be re-used.
In summary, some current solutions provide adequate products protection and storage, and enable re-usability of the stored products. However, they are expensive and do not enable a flexible layout reconfiguration of the production facility. Other current solutions are simple and inexpensive, but do not provide adequate storage and protection of the products.
It would be desirable to provide a building for storing hazardous materials within an open production facility (the building should not be located indoors) that reduces the costs associated with installation of the building, reduces the costs associated with travel of personnel between the storage building and the location where the hazardous material is used, and enables a flexible facility configuration layout within the production facility.
The subject matter disclosed in detail below is directed to deployment and use of a portable building having a climate-controlled interior space in which a plurality of noncombustible hazardous material storage cabinets are placed. The storage cabinets are designed to provide spill containment and fire protection. More specifically, each cabinet comprises metal double walls separated by an air space and a liquid-tight containment sump, and each cabinet is configured so that fire is less able to spread from a space above a shelf to a space below the shelf.
The foregoing arrangement enables low-cost storage of hazardous materials. Depending on the jurisdiction, the applicable safety and fire code may not require the installation or maintenance of smoke/fire detectors, alarms, an automatic fire suppression system, and spill/deluge waste containment. The use of portable buildings equipped with noncombustible cabinets is a low-cost storage option that will allow temperature-controlled storage of chemicals without the need for more expensive fire monitoring and control systems. In some embodiments, the portable building can be moved using a forklift or other lifting apparatus. In other embodiments, the portable building may be equipped with wheels and towed (or driven) to a site.
Because a portable building equipped with cabinets allows the storage of small volumes of hazardous or flammable materials in separate compartments, the applicable safety or fire code in a particular jurisdiction may not require an automatic fire suppression system. Thus, the portable building can be moved to a new site within the production facility without incurring costs associated with connecting the building to a water supply using water pipes. Also, the cost of installing an automatic fire suppression system is avoided. Thus, the presence of the portable building inside an open production facility poses no impediment to the reconfiguration of the facility configuration layout.
One aspect of the subject matter disclosed in detail below is a method for storing hazardous or flammable materials for use in a production facility, comprising: (a) placing a portable building at a first location within the production facility in accordance with a first facility configuration layout and without connecting the portable building to a water source using pipes; (b) storing hazardous or flammable materials inside the portable building in compliance with an applicable safety code governing the storage of hazardous or flammable materials while the portable building is at the first location; (c) specifying a second facility configuration layout different than the first facility configuration layout; (d) moving the portable building to a second location within the production facility in accordance with the second facility configuration layout without connecting the portable building to a water source using pipes; and (e) storing hazardous or flammable materials inside the portable building in compliance with the applicable safety code while the portable building is at the second location.
In accordance with some embodiments, the method described in the preceding paragraph further comprises placing a plurality of cabinets inside the portable building, each of the cabinets having a construction designed to contain fire and spills, wherein steps (b) and (e) each comprise storing hazardous or flammable materials inside the plurality of cabinets.
Another aspect of the subject matter disclosed in detail below is a storage system for hazardous or flammable materials comprising: a portable building not equipped with an automatic fire suppression system and not connected to a water source by pipes; and a cabinet disposed in the interior space of the portable building, wherein the cabinet is constructed to contain fire and spills in compliance with an applicable safety code governing the storage of hazardous or flammable materials without any connection to a water source. In addition, the portable building contains neither a smoke detector nor a fire monitoring system.
In accordance with some embodiments of the storage system described in the preceding paragraph, the portable building comprises a plurality of walls, a door mounted to one of the plurality of walls, and a floor that is sealed to the walls to prevent leakage of liquid from the portable building in the event of a spill, wherein the wall to which the door is mounted comprises a wall section that extends upward from the floor to a bottom of the door. The floor of the portable building does not incorporate a liquid collection system. The walls are made of non-combustible material and are sealed to each other to prevent leakage of liquid from the portable building.
The above-described storage system further comprises: a power connection mounted to the portable building; and an HVAC unit mounted to an exterior of the portable building, wherein the HVAC unit provides adequate temperature and/or humidity (either one or both) control for preventing spoilage or fuming of the hazardous or flammable materials; and wherein the adequate temperature and humidity control prevents the chemical composition of stored hazardous materials from being adversely impacted by temperature and/or humidity changes, thereby enabling the materials to be re-used.
A further aspect of the subject matter disclosed in detail below is a storage system comprising: a portable building that is not connected to a water source using pipes; and a plurality of cabinets disposed in the interior space of the portable building, wherein each cabinet of the plurality of cabinets comprises metal double walls separated by an air space and a liquid-tight containment sump. Each cabinet is constructed to contain fire and spills in compliance with an applicable safety code governing the storage of hazardous or flammable materials without any connection to a water source. The portable building does not contain any of the following: an automatic fire suppression system, a smoke detector, a fire monitoring system, and a liquid collection system.
Other aspects of systems and methods for storing and containing hazardous materials in a portable building that is deployable inside a production facility are disclosed below.
Reference will hereinafter be made to the drawings in which similar elements in different drawings bear the same reference numerals.
Illustrative embodiments of a storage system for containing hazardous materials at a production facility are described in some detail below. However, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
Storage systems of the type disclosed herein can be deployed in many production facility, including facilities where vehicles (such as aircraft, trains, automobiles, boats, trucks, etc.) are produced. For the sake of illustration, a method for deploying portable storage buildings will now be described with reference to an aircraft production facility.
The placement of storage building 54 outside and at a distance from the aircraft production facility 50 necessitates that personnel who want to use a hazardous material at a stall inside the facility must travel back and forth along the paths 56 indicated by non-linear lines in
The placement and installation process for storage building 54 renders such building fixed or considered as a monument. Thus, if a plan were adopted to reconfigure the facility configuration layout of the aircraft production facility 50 to accommodate different-sized structures or to be repurposed, it would be difficult and expensive to relocate storage building 54 within the aircraft production facility 50. A relocation of storage building 54 would require digging water pipes to the new location, and passing the requirements of a permitting process, a process that could take days, if not weeks, and would have high associated costs.
Given the storage capacity of storage building 54, it is purposefully sited at an edge of the aircraft production facility 50 and not inside it for at least two reasons: (1) overall site fire protection purposes; and (2) overall site layout optimization to avoid interference with the free movement of vehicles inside the facility.
In contrast to the permanent storage installation depicted in
In accordance with one method for storing hazardous or flammable materials within the production facility, the following steps are performed: (a) placing the portable building 2 at a first location within the aircraft production facility 50 in accordance with a first facility configuration layout without connecting the portable building to a water source using pipes; (b) storing hazardous or flammable materials inside the portable building while the portable building is at the first location; (c) specifying a second facility configuration layout different than the first facility configuration layout; (d) moving the portable building to a second location within the production facility in accordance with the second facility configuration layout without connecting the portable building to a water source using pipes; and (e) storing hazardous or flammable materials inside the portable building while the portable building is at the second location. Although the portable building 2 is not connected to water at either the first location or the second location, by maintaining the volume levels of the stored hazardous production materials below specified thresholds, the portable building 2 will be in compliance with the applicable safety code governing the storage of hazardous or flammable materials.
More specifically, the portable building 2 has an interior space partially occupied by one or more cabinets (not shown in
In addition, the portable building 2 is not equipped with an automatic water-based fire suppression system (e.g., it has no water sprinklers). Therefore, the portable building 2 need not be connected to a supply of water. Also, because each cabinet inside the portable building has a catch basin for containing spilled hazardous material, the portable building 2 need not be designed with a catch basin for capturing spilled or leaked hazardous material. If hazardous material is spilled inside a cabinet, the catch basin underneath the bottom of the cabinet should contain the spillage and prevent it from reaching the floor of the portable building 2. However, preferably the floor, walls and ceiling of the portable building 2 are sealed for easy clean-up in the event that hazardous material does escape from a cabinet.
In accordance with one embodiment, the floor of the portable building 2 comprises a layer of non-combustible underneath sealed textured aluminum plate, the exterior walls comprise metal sheeting fastened to studs, and the interior walls comprise textured vinyl panels glued to gypsum panels, the gypsum panels in turn being attached to fiberglass-reinforced panels that are attached to the studs. The floor-to-wall joints are sealed using silicone caulking to limit spills from escaping the building interior.
Containers of hazardous material for use within the aircraft production facility 50 can be stored inside the portable building 2. The production personnel may move selected containers from the portable building to points of use or to sheds adjacent to such points of use. The placement of portable building 2 inside the aircraft production facility 50 allows a person to travel a shorter distance in order to move a hazardous material container from the portable building 2 to a shed 52. The respective paths of travel from portable building 2 to respective sheds 52 are indicated by straight lines in
As best seen in
In the embodiment shown in
Only portions of walls 4c and 4d and floor 6 of the portable building 2 are shown in
In the specific configuration shown in
After the portable building 2 has been moved to a new location, it must be hooked up to a source of electrical power. This can be accomplished easily and quickly by connecting one or more electrical cables (not shown in
As shown in
The cabinet 12 depicted in
The front of the cabinet 12 has a right door 18a and a left door 18b which selectively cover the opening in the enclosure. In alternative embodiments, the cabinet 12 can have a single door to selectively cover the opening of the enclosure. In
As seen in
Preferably, the shelf 34 is a spill-sloped shelf for directing fluid into the containment sump at the bottom 16 of the cabinet 12, as disclosed in the aforementioned patent. All the waste from a fire will be held in the containment sump of the cabinet 12, which has a sealed bottom. Additionally, the right and left sides 14a and 14b, back 36, doors 18a and 18b, and shelf 34 of the cabinet 12 are designed so that when the doors 18a and 18b are closed, the interior volume 44 above the shelf 34 is effectively sealed off from the interior volume 46 below the shelf 34, at least to the extent that fire in one interior volume cannot spread to the other interior volume. (For example, as depicted in
While storage systems for containing hazardous materials have been described with reference to particular embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation to the teachings herein without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore it is intended that the claims set forth hereinafter not be limited to the disclosed embodiments.
In the absence of explicit language indicating a particular sequence of steps, the method claims set forth hereinafter should not be construed to require that the steps recited therein be performed in alphabetical order (any alphabetical ordering in the claims is used solely for the purpose of referencing previously recited steps) or in the order in which they are recited. Similarly, in the absence of explicit language indicating non-concurrent steps, the method claims set forth hereinafter should not be construed to exclude any portions of two or more steps being performed concurrently.
