Real-time detection of potential fires in the below deck container hold

The Challenge

Allianz have predicted, using their risk barometer, that fire and explosion will be the biggest safety threat for the Marine and Shipping sector in 2020.  According to their 2019 Safety and Shipping Review, there were 174 fire incidents reported the previous year, with a fire breaking out on average every 60 days. At the same time, the number of containers moving through ports increases annually, which can only exacerbate the problem.

Therefore, in an era when ships are larger than ever and moving more containers every year, seafarers are often ill-equipped to monitor, detect and contain fires themselves, leaving the task to tugboats that can take days or weeks to arrive. Each failed attempt presents a sizeable environmental, financial and, most importantly, human cost.

To detect fires as early as possible, temperature sensors, novel gas sensors or similar systems that detect substantive warming or changes in a container can be deployed on the ship. The vessel’s structure below deck offers the right environment for deploying thermal sensors, or similar detection systems. This Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator Innovation Challenge, set in conjunction with Seaspan, seeks innovative solutions which could deliver real-time detection of potential fires in the below deck container hold.

About Seaspan:

Seaspan is the worldwide leader in independent containership management and ownership, leasing primarily on long-term, fixed-rate charters to the world’s largest liner companies. Seaspan is a global company, employing 4600+ people through offices in Hong Kong, Canada, and India, and on board 112 owned and managed vessels. Containership transportation is one of the safest ways to ship goods, with operation of Seaspan’s vessels made efficient through training and quality standards and procedures, with these initiatives enabling risk mitigation and operation at low cost.

The Finalists

Sensefinity; SwiftSensors; Everactive

The Winner

To tackle this challenge, Everactive will deploy wireless battery-less temperature sensors, aiming to deliver real-time detection of potential fires in the below deck container hold. Leveraging over a decade of circuit technology R&D, battery-less Eversensors require such minuscule amounts of power that they can sense, process, and wirelessly transmit data continuously —all from energy harvesting. Everactive will now go on to trial their safetytech solution alongside Seaspan for up to three months.