Costa neoRiviera is a cruise ship built in 1999 at St. Nazaire, France and owned by the navigation company Costa Crociere since 2013.
Costa Crociere boasts the biggest fleet of the European operators with a total of 25 ships in operation and two new ships launched in 2016. Costa Crociere is part of the Carnival Corporation & plc group, the world’s largest leisure travel company.
Costa Crociere’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond responsible management of resources, to make a tangible contribution to the conservation of resources for future generation. Their pursuit of innovative solutions and services is linked to mitigating environmental impact in both local communities at their destinations and in the sea. The conservation of the marine environment is the top priority for Costa Crociere.
In line with this sustainable approach, Costa Crociere turned to Johnson Controls to modernise the fire prevention system aboard the neoRiviera.
Costa Crociere needed to implement this system quickly and efficiently with the lowest impact on their cruise activities, and with full compliance to the shipbuilder’s specifications and regulatory requirements.
Costa neoRiviera represents a new concept of cruise ships where quality and excellence are top priority.
This ship has a total of 624 cabins: 94 suites, 4 scenic cabins with private deck and 6 grand-suites with private deck. Aboard the ship there are 3 restaurants and 6 coffee bars, a wide range of leisure facilities and fitness centres, swimming pool, sporting field, a two floors theatre, casino, disco, library and more. The ship’s measurements are impressive: tonnage (t): 48200, length: 216m, width: 29m, max number of guests: 1700, staff: 600.
The installation of the SAPPHIRE® fire suppression system from Johnson Controls represents a new technological standard in the cruise ships industry, compared to the traditionally used CO2 system.
Typically, the fire systems onboard cruise ships are centralised systems, located in the biggest room to be protected. The disadvantage of such systems is that once activated in one of the locations, the system is then out of service and unable to protect the ship against subsequent outbreaks of fire.
The solution designed by Johnson Controls uses instead a specific architecture system which includes 100% room protection, 24/7, regardless of any individual gas discharges. The system is a bespoke, modular, lightweight design solution which takes up less space than other systems due to its lower pipe length and smaller pipe diameter. The result is the full elimination of the discharge collectors and welding parts: the modular system being cheaper and easier to install.
The modular system, using 3MTM NovecTM 1230 Fire Protection Fluid was able to be installed while the ship was sailing. This meant no disruption for passengers or obstacles for the staff, no compromise of security during sailing and installation in a total timeframe of just 2 months. The installation time was reduced by 80% compared to a traditional system, which would have also required the ship to remain static in a shipyard.
Johnson Controls project managed the entire life cycle of the project: risk analysis, design, detailed engineering, tests with RINA certification authority which guarantee the system’s requirements, installation, trial, training and commissioning into service. Johnson Controls fire suppression systems are certified according to all registers operating in the shipbuilders’ industry, such as US Coast Guard, Lloyd’s Register, ABS, DNV, MED Marine, BureauVeritas, GL and obviously RINA.
The SAPPHIRE® System comprises 65 containers, sizes from 147 to 180 lts @42 bar, and 7.500 Kgs of 3MTM NovecTM 1230 Fire Protection Fluid.
Johnson Controls designed the single components in their factories, assembling the plant’s parts in their labs and charging the tanks with the fire-extinguishing agent. They used their own certified personnel with strict compliance to the directions of the certification authority who validated all development steps prior to installation.
SAPPHIRE® fire-protection system uses Novec 1230 fire protection fluid, a clean agent which is stored as a liquid but dispersed as a gas, requiring only low cylinder pressure for storage. It has an excellent environmental profile, with zero Ozone Depletion Potential, and a Global Warming Potential of 1 due to a 5-day atmospheric lifetime.
Since the fluid disperses as a gas, it leaves no moisture or residue. It is neither corrosive nor conductive, and extinguishes fires within seconds, minimising disruption to electronics or other sensitive equipment. Unlike CO2, Novec 1230 fluid is safe for people and provides the widest margin of safety relative to other clean agents such as HFCs and inert gas systems. This makes it an ideal solution for boats and ships where exiting from a protected space may be challenging.
3MTM NovecTM 1230 Fire Protection Fluid is an advanced clean agent fire suppression material, based on a proprietary chemistry from 3M. It was designed to address industry needs for clean agent fire protection that is safe and effective while offering a sustainable environmental profile that no other halocarbon agent can match. This includes – Zero Ozone Depletion Potential; a 5-day atmospheric lifetime, and a Global Warming Potential of 1. Because of these properties, Novec 1230 fluid is not targeted for phase-down or regulatory restrictions anywhere in the world. It is approved for use in total flooding fire suppression systems by the U.S. EPA and most major regulatory bodies. All of this makes Novec 1230 fluid today’s sustainable choice for clean agent fire protection.
The 3MTM NovecTM Brand Family
The Novec brand is the hallmark for a variety of proprietary 3M products. Although each has its own unique formula and performance properties, all 3MTM NovecTM products are designed in common to address the need for safe, effective, sustainable solutions in industry-specific applications. These include precision and electronics cleaning, heat transfer, fire protection, protective coatings, immersion cooling, advanced insulation media replacement solutions and several speciality chemical applications.
For more information please visit: www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/novec-uk/applications/fire-suppression
