A small but significant number of marine cargo fire and explosion incidents are due to self-heating in some form. Self-heating can affect a surprising variety of cargoes including coal, iron in the form of direct reduced iron (DRI), metal turnings, charcoal, seed cake and biomass, in addition to the more obvious issues with solid and liquid chemicals.

 An article in the latest Triton by Dr Neil Sanders of Burgoynes focuses on self-heating, perhaps the most perplexing of all causes of fire. Read more»