Vegetable oil recycling plants

[The Colonel]

Looking for some help with regard to fires and safety measures in factories that collect and recycle used cooking oil from catering establishments etc. The sort of premises concerned collect old oil both solid and liquid, it is then separated from any old food cardboard etc and sent to another factory for further filtering before becoming road fuel.

I have heard that there may have been at least one fire in this sort of plant where organic matter and different types of oil have caused a problem that lead to a fire. Has anyone heard of this problem or of fires in these plants. Any information on these plants and any fire at all in them would be helpful.

Also what sort of fire fighting measures have any of you come across within such plants, obviously a 6ltr wet chemical is not of much use against a large amount of fuel. Anyone know of any fixed installations such as water mist in such areas.

Any information would be of help.

Thanks

[kurnal]

We have discussed this before- hope this helps.

http://fire.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4102.0

[The Colonel]

Kurnal

Thanks for pointing in the direction of the thread it has helped. I am sure there was an incident in the last couple of years where a small plant went up in the west midlands/wales border areas which may have been the result of organic material and different oils mixing.

The plant I am visiting this week just collects, filters and then moves on the a refining plant so I don't think I will find to many barrels of nasty stuff (hopefully). Will post more details at the end of the week.

The thought of working in an oil recycling plant in protective gear is a million miles from the sun, pool and cold beer of Majorca, back to the bar for a refill.