Vittorio Sangermano, technical coordinator of the OVERHEAT project, shares his insights on the project’s key challenges and innovations.
- Dear Vittorio, in your opinion, what is the main innovation introduced by the OVERHEAT project compared to existing fire safety solutions in the maritime sector?
Actually, the maritime sector continues to face the challenges tackled by the OVERHEAT project. This is mainly because there are no requirements for the installation of fixed fire detection systems on or within containers. Indeed, the detection of a fire on deck is left to chance. Nowadays, a fire is only discovered if a perceptible amount of smoke is produced. OVERHEAT allows to detect fire even before a flame is produced thanks to trained sensors capable of recognizing fire footprints in the air. In case of detection, the sensor sent alarm to the OVERHEAT integrated digital solution providing fire incident information (e.g. exact location of the container, temperature, fire precursors, etc.) to the operator who can deploy a UAV to provide an aerial view of the situation. The UAV is equipped with a thermal camera that confirms the fire detection, allowing the crew to prepare and respond more quickly. Moreover, the OVERHEAT system permits to share this information with port authorities ashore providing them with a complete situational picture of the fire incident. Overall, the system not only helps the crew to detect and tackle the fire on board, but it allows to provide a common situational picture to all the operators involved in the fire response.
- What are the main operational challenges in managing cargo fires at sea, and how can OVERHEAT technologies help address them?
We must state that the sea makes the seafarers under pressure in normal conditions. Indeed, the maritime sector is considered a safety-critical context. Usually, on containerships seafarers passes many months before returning home. Also, the fire on the land is a serious threat that causes every year thousand of fatalities and economic losses. The ship is considered as “confined area” making onboard fires particularly dangerous due to the risks they pose to human life and high-value cargo. Indeed, the main operational challenges are given by the fact that seafarers are called to operate in very small spaces, as the decks inside the ship. The OVERHEAT system allows the crew to recognize fire just from the fire precursors. Even before flames become visible, our IoT sensors can detect the early signs of a fire. During real-world tests with coal, the sensors successfully identified an incipient fire simply by “smelling” the air inside the container. These groundbreaking results exceeded our expectations, confirming that our innovative solution can detect fires at their earliest stages and significantly reduce the risk of cascading effects.
- Looking ahead, how do you envision the long-term impact of OVERHEAT technologies on the future of maritime safety?
The results we collected from both real-time simulations and real-world demonstrations are really promising. Indeed, also from the first responders (i.e. firefighters) we collected really good impressions regarding the impact that the OVERHEAT technologies may have on maritime safety. I strongly believe that the investigated technologies will enhance the way safety is currently threaten on board containerships. We should also consider that nowadays fire incidents on board ships are frequent, so we should be encouraged by such astonishing results, which validate the effectiveness of our cutting-edge solution in enabling early fire detection and helping to prevent cascading effects. Furthermore, we only investigated containerships, but actually OVERHEAT system is scalable to all the ships. As an example, car carries nowadays represents one of the most risky cargo ships. They also transport electrical vehicles and we are aware that when a battery is burning, the risk of serious damage is really high. In this sense, there is not only the risk for people on board, as a fire at sea can also have devastating consequences for the marine ecosystem. The flexibility of the OVERHEAT system allows it to be deployed in different scenarios. Nevertheless, additional research and validation are required before the system can be fully deployed in operational environments.
- Do you think the OVERHEAT project could contribute to the improvement of maritime regulations, operational practices, and the protection of coastal and marine environments?
Yes, in our project we have a Stakeholder Support Board composed of maritime experts, academics, ship owners, port authorities and assurance company that are well informed about the project results. They are also providing us recommendations related to the way we should make the research and uptake the solutions. We already collected really interesting feedback regarding our technologies. Indeed, one of the outcomes of the project is to produce best practices to be shared with the maritime authorities and the wider maritime domain. We are also considering the publication of a policy brief highlighting the project’s main findings and recommendations. We really hope that our results will be taken into consideration and will shape future research and innovation in this field. We are proud of the outcomes achieved and of the contribution that OVERHEAT has made to improving maritime safety.
Vittorio Sangermano is head of the safety and security critical system department at Fondazione Institute for Sustainable Society and Innovation (ISSNOVA). His department focuses on systemic thinking and human centred design and Safety requirements and risk assessment operations In safety-critical domains; he is currently involved in several European projects mainly in the maritime domain such as OVERHEAT (innOVativE stRategies for containersHip firEs prevention And managemenT) in which he also is project technical coordinator.
In the picture: Vittorio Sangermano, project technical coordinator