Replacement and expansion of extinguishing foam and control installation at Kaneka
Kaneka Belgium NV is a leading technology driven chemical company. Kaneka Belgium has activities in various functional and foamed plastic solutions, where special materials are developed and produced for applications in industry, the automotive sector, the building and construction sector, the packaging sector, the consumer market, the do-it-yourself sector and the residential sector.
The project
A part of the tank terminal already has a fire protection system: an extinguishing foam installation. The heart of this installation consists of a foam storage tank as well as a manifold with a foam proportioner. The location of this foam storage tank and manifold was in an area where our customer wanted to expand a production unit.
Preparation
Based on the chemicals present and the arrangement of the tank farms, we proposed a new fire protection concept and discussed it with the security services. Within this concept we’ve taken into account: sustainability, being able to reach the installations safely in the event of an incident, as well as being able to operate the installation fully automatically from the control room. Since we have included an ANPI certified FoamTronic foam proportioning installation with a pressure tank in the concept, the foam mixing installation can be tested without creating a waste stream.
Design and realization
The entire installation was designed in 3D, so the new piping and cable ducts and the existing process installation are in one model. The new fire fighting foam installation was built and certified before the old installation was removed.
We used an FM-approved Det-Tronics control system to monitor and control the installations. This type of Fire & Gas controller is certified to control extinguishing systems and has many communication options. For this project we provided a button-panel for the control room and an integration into the process visualization system.
