One of many issues which have turn into more and more obvious with the rise of electrical vehicles is that when they catch on fireplace, these fires are extremely troublesome to extinguish. That is true of totally geared up fireplace crews on dry land, however think about if a type of fires occurred inside a ship at sea.
It’s not that onerous to think about, as a result of it occurred to the Felicity Ace cargo ship final 12 months. The great factor was that, being a cargo ship, the variety of crew on board was comparatively minimal. What if it occurred on a cruise ship? That’s the query that Norwegian cruise line Havila Kystruten requested of consulting agency Proactima AS when the Norwegian authorities requested it to start out hauling autos on a few of its coastal cruise ships. The reply, as reported lately by Maritime Government, was “completely not.”
Proactima AS decided that despite the fact that the ships have been state-of-the-art and able to dealing with a petrochemical fireplace, the chance of lithium or perhaps a hydrogen fireplace was too nice to justify. Additional, if one did occur, the percentages of placing it out with out it endangering the lives of passengers weren’t well worth the danger. It’s because a lithium fireplace, along with burning extremely scorching, additionally produces a number of poisonous vapors.
Havila’s model new ships use lithium storage batteries themselves, however the distinction between these and the battery cells in a shopper EV is important. For instance, maritime rules state {that a} ship using these has to have them in a separate fire-proof room with a hearth suppression system designed particularly for the battery kind getting used.
Will this choice by Havila Kystruten have an effect on different ferries or transport ships? Will, for instance, the Washington State Ferry system place restrictions on hauling EVs? What precautions will massive transport ships take to maintain a scenario just like the one we noticed on the Felicity Ace from taking place once more?
We reached out to Havila Kystruten for remark however didn’t hear again in time for publication.