Storage Tank Fire - Boilover Study of Biodiesel/Biofuel

An experimental study of boilover phenomena in connection with biodiesel pool
fire is carried out to determine the possibility of biodiesel to boilover during a fire
and the properties of the biodiesel during boilover, if it has the tendency to boilover
such as time taken to boilover, relation between depth of the biodiesel and the time
taken to boilover and the radius of the ejections during a boilover. A biodiesel is
burned in steel pans ranging from a circular one with diameter of 15 cm and 19 cm.
A biodiesel layer of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 cm will be floating on water in the pans.The
burning of the biodiesel for all the set up ended with boilover i.e ejection of burning
fuel and fire enlargement were observed for all the tests conducted. The time taken to
boilover upon burning increases as the fuel depth increased. The tests using larger
diameter container (19cm) produce faster time to boilover compared to the test using
smaller diameter container (15cm) for the same fuel depth. On the different type of
biodiesel, B7 (mixture of 7% biodiesel + 93% conventional diesel ) produces faster
time to boilover compared to b100 ( 100% biodiesel).