Milk & Juice Storage Commodity

6/5/2018

I'm currently working on a project for a packaging factory in which there are rooms which are used for storage of Milk and Juice in stainless steel tanks that are about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in diameter and 8 m (26.2 ft) in height.

There are about 5-6 tanks for each area (milk and juice storage). Each room is about 70 sq.m. (753.4 sqft). The ceiling height is about 11.1 m (36.4 ft). The content combustibility (i.e. Milk & juice) is low and the quantity is high. Since the height of the tanks is above the threshold of 3.7 m (12 ft), I cannot consider it to be protected by LH or OH1 curves and it should come under storage occupancy and commodity classes.

Since my exact requirement is not present in the list of commodity classes in NFPA 13, I figured it to be Class 1 per the liquid content. Accordingly, it would be under Commodity Class 1 curve in NFPA Chapter 14 Figure 14.2.4.1 (2013 Edition) and multiplication factor for density vs storage height from Figure 14.2.4.3.

Kindly let me know if I'm on the right track or if there is something which I overlooked.

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2 Comments

Glenn

6/5/2018 09:30:37 am

NFPA-13 Chapter 14 is "Protection of Class I to Class IV Commodities That Are Stored Palletized, Solid Piled, Bin Boxes, Shelf Storage, or Back-to-back Shelf Storage".
While milk and juice would be considered a class 1 commodity, since they are stored in tanks and not in any of the configurations listed above, chapter 14 would not be applicable. NFPA-13 does not provide any specific requirements for indoor non-portable tank storage of non-combustible liquids. Therefore, the space should be protected using the density/area method.
Per A.5.3.1, "beverage manufacturing" and "Dairy products manufacturing and processing" are examples of Ordinary Hazard (Group 1).

Franck

6/5/2018 10:41:14 am

Fully agree with Glenn
Considering this activity as a storage is excessive. Even considering it as a class I commodity is excessive (in a class I commodity, the pallet can burn, you have no pallet in your case).
Milk and juice in their liquid form are non combustible liquids. Fire load is therefore very limited.
OH Gr. 1 is a good approach for this type of occupancy if you want to be conservative.
I might even recommend no sprinkler protection at all, depending on the construction and if there is no other equipment or combustible load.
As a parallel, if you are looking at Factory Mutual Data Sheet 7.74 (Distilleries), you will find that the mashing and fermenting areas, which are mainly some kind of wines or other products considered as limited combustible liquids (no high level of alcohol content), are protected with a density of 0.15/2500, which is quite close to the OH Gr 1 curve from NFPA. BUT, this recommended sprinkler protection is only in case of combustible construction or equipment. No automatic sprinkler protection required if both construction and equipment are noncombustible.
And Factory Mutual is generally very happy to recommend sprinkler protection.

Milk & Juice Storage Commodity

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