One of the biggest challenges faced by shipping companies today is to safely ship inflammable items. Petrol, crude oil, diesel, furnace oil, chemicals and many other things those are highly sensitive and likely to catch fire at the slightest spark need to be handled with extreme precaution when transporting. Many transport ships have been set ablaze due to their cargo. The smallest mistake caused the greatest mishap and besides monetary loss, there was a great loss of human lives as well. Most of the crew had to jump overboard to save their lives and unfortunately they drowned, and most of the others were reported to have been badly hurt due to thermal injuries or burnt to their last breath.

While such cargo is a huge risk to carry, it cannot be denied transportation by the companies. They however need to take care of the security concerns and have a good fire suppression system installed such as the CO2 & marine CO2 systems. In the unfortunate event of a fire breaking onboard, the ship would be saved from greater harm due to the fire suppression system which acts automatically. There is no need to start the system for leaping in action, however you can stop it once the task is over and it doesn’t stop automatically. They are designed to start and stop automatically but also provide the opportunity to override the automatic system and perform manually.

Carbon dioxide is one fire suppression agent that has a worldwide reputation of putting out even the worst fires. No matter how big or small the flames may be, oxygen is needed to gain more strength and spread further. Absence of oxygen would cause the chain reaction to be broken immediately and the fire would be put out. Hence it is one of the best to be used to fight against any type of fire and one thing is for certain, CO2 never turns into flames as in the case of many other gases.

CO2 is sold commercially in liquefied state and filled in single skinned cylinders of various sizes. These cylinders are attached to the fire suppression system on a ship and when needed, carbon dioxide is pumped from these cylinders and transported through steel pipes all the way to the spot where it is needed. Being present in single skinned containers, one can easily mistake an empty cylinder for a filled one unless it is checked in any way. Using the ultrasonic liquid level indicator, checking of these cylinders become easy and the empty ones can be removed to avoid any distasteful event.