The Steamexfire refers to a high flow

inert gas generator Inert gas generator (IGG) refers to machinery on board marine product tankers. Inert gas generators consist distinctively of a gas producer and a scrubbing system. Process Diesel is burned using atmospheric air in a combustion chamber and the ex ...

, or any inert gas generator that produces an inert gas consisting of nitrogen and CO2, steam and water vapour. Such generators reduce environmental oxygen enough to extinguish fires in settings like tunnels, mining, or shipping.

Principle

The Steamexfire is driven by a

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

, in which air is compressed into a combustion chamber where fuel ( kerosene) is injected. The flammable mixture of fuel and air is ignited by a

sparkplug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

, and the gases expand as a result of the combustion process. The gases are forced into a turbine which drives a

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

. The exhaust gas of a jet engine contains approx. 17% oxygen. In a second stage combustion chamber, more fuel is injected and ignited. As a result of this process, all oxygen is consumed, and what remains is an inert gas. This process takes place in a 7-meter-long combustion tube, which is cooled by water. The heated water is injected at the end of the cooling tube, and consequently the water is turned into water vapor and

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. As a result, the Steamexfire produces up to 25 cubic meters of inert steam and water vapor per second. The fore runner of the Steamexfire is called the GAG unit.

Underground mine fires

The Steamexfire has been deployed to fight underground

mine fire A coal-seam fire is a burning of an outcrop or underground coal seam. Most coal-seam fires exhibit smouldering combustion, particularly underground coal-seam fires, because of limited atmospheric oxygen availability. Coal-seam fire instances ...

s at the Goedehoop mine fire in South Africa and at the Svea Nord mine fire on

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

Island.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Product website from manufacturer
Coal mining Fire suppression Firefighting equipment