Comparison of a bladder tank installation vs. a FireDos proportioning solution

For many fire threats companies worldwide are relying on foam as extinguishing media. For the past decades companies have been using conventional foam proportioning systems such as bladder tanks with a wide range proportioner or driven gear pumps with wide range proportioners, where excess foam agent is returned to the foam agent tank. In 1994,  FireDos developed and introduced the first proportioning system based on the concept consisting of a water motor, driven by the fire-fighting water, and a coupled piston pump.

The main advantages of using a water motor driven piston pump proportioner are: 

• The system is purely mechanical – no electric power is required
•  The proportioning rate does not have to be calibrated as there is a fixed mechanical correlation between water flow and foam concentrate flow
•  The proportioning rate is constant over a wide range of flows and back pressures and not effected by turning various output devices on and off intermittently – there are no electronics that must adjust to new parameters
• The FireDos GEN III EV water motor driven proportioning systems exclusively use in house designed piston pumps that are engineered and tested for use with both low viscous Newtonian and highly viscous pseudoplastic foam agents – no recalibration is necessary when switching concentrates
• All systems are equipped with foam agent return lines for cost-effective and eco-friendly testing of the proportioning rate without having to produce premix or foam
• As the separate foam agent tank is unpressurized and can therefore be refilled whenever necessary, users benefit from unlimited fire-fighting time
• Thanks to the wide operating range, the proportioning systems are qualified for all types of fire extinguishing systems like sprinkler, deluge, foam chambers, fire monitors, wet and dry extinguishing systems
• The system offers a compact and versatile installation

To date more than 16,000 FireDos proportioners are installed successfully worldwide across all industries.

Several years ago, FireDos participated in an upgrade project for the storage facility of a local oil company. In consistence with its business plan, HSE commitment and social responsibility, the operator started a project to upgrade its fire & gas detection and fire-fighting systems based on the latest PSM (Process Safety Management) standards & guidelines. The scope of work was to include a new fire & gas detection and fire-fighting system including fire water pumps, foam proportioning systems and remote operated monitors. Offered Solutions are fully integrated detection and fire-fighting systems with highest industry safety level SIL 3 control systems to manage automatic detection and fire-fighting using FireDos’ proportioners and remote operated monitors.

To date the operator had been using ILBPP (In-Line-Balanced-Pressure-Proportioning) Systems for foam generation and distribution. Due to the size of the installation this system was complex with numerous pipes running to the various parts of the facility. 

The foam proportioning solution offered to safely upgrade the existing systems, using the new and reliable water motor driven piston pumps, designed and built by FireDos. 

The project required a total of 20 foam discharge points, that had to be independently fed with premix. Even though the proportioning rate was the same for all discharge points, the flow volumes, and distances from the proportioners, which are equivalent to differing pressure drops, varied. Using the former ILBPP technology, a total of 20 In-Line-Balanced-Pressure-Proportioners, each equipped with their own control valve, were needed. The ILBPP’s were fed with foam concentrate by a diesel-electric foam proportioning pump. In this project the total cost would have added up to approximately $1,400,000. The FireDos solution using three skid-mounted FD10000 proportioning systems of the latest generation, GEN III, resulted in a total cost of approximately $970,000. Apart from the reduction in cost, the two additional advantages that were seen were the reduction in necessary ground space as well as the considerable reduction in maintenance cost. FireDos proportioners provide the ability to test the proportioning rate of the foam, without having to create foam or premix, by using a return line. This way no foam concentrate is consumed or needs to be refilled into the atmospheric foam concentrate storage tanks. In addition, no foam or premix needs to be disposed, which helps in the ecological balance sheet.

Besides the savings in the foam proportioning and valve systems, the significant reduction in pipework resulted in a cost saving of approximately $555,000. In addition, the project construction time could be reduced by six months. A comparison of images 2 and 3 makes this difference quite obvious.

FireDos specializes in the development and production of innovative and reliable proportioning systems and extinguishing monitors for firefighting. FireDos provides its customers security – through risk reduction, lower operating costs and compliance with legal regulations. Every single FireDos product is designed, built, and tested to meet the most challenging conditions. The proportioning systems and extinguishing monitors fulfill an elementary task: they protect people, buildings, plants and equipment.

The calculation above shows the cost difference for testing the proportioning system between a bladder tank with any type of proportioner – jet ratio controller, eductor, wide range, etc. – and a FireDos proportioner.

It is easy to recognize that the savings per testing with the latter are massive. For a medium sized system with a flow rate of approx. 1600 gpm, the cost for testing bladder tanks amounts to over a quarter of a million dollars.

All foam agent types, even those of high viscosity, can be mixed. A constant proportioning rate across a wide operating range guarantees automatic adaptation to variable firefighting scenarios. Another advantage: The cost-effective and eco-friendly proportioning rate testing method works completely without producing foam or premix.