Fuel load of beeswax
Fuel load of beeswax
(OP)
I’m working on some fire protection measures for a candle factory.
The main combustible product stored in the factory is beeswax.
Under the Canadian Building Code a factory can have either an F2 or F3 classification. F2 is medium hazard and F3 is low hazard.
The division between the two is the density of combustible material. The criteria is either 50 kgs/m2 or 1 200 MJ /m2 of floor space.
My question does anyone know the fuel load of beeswax? Or know of a reference that will allow me to look it up?
Thanks
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com





RE: Fuel load of beeswax
Ordenanza Municipal de Protección Contra Incendios de Zaragoza 1995
Anejo 2. Uso Industrial y de Almacenamiento
in p. 77
Following the use of the space:
Wax fabrication: qm= 400 Mcal/m2
Wax storage/logistical qm=500 Mcal/m2
Fabrication of Wax Items qm=320 Mcal/m2
these fire loads are to be multiplied by a Ci and a Ra factor but not for the height, that is, is for the whole space, weighted overall, all over the plan.
in p. 80
Following the stored material
Wax qm=800 Mcal/m3
this to be multiplied by Ri, Ca and h, the height of the stored material, and understood then be for net storage plan.
Ci is a flamability factor, maybe Ci=1.2 for this use
RA is a risk of activation factor, 3 for this case
Look for cera (=wax) in the table in this link
http://www.coitiab.es/reglamentos/incendios/reglamentos...
that corresponds to a more modern code.
RE: Fuel load of beeswax
Good job ishvaaag!
RE: Fuel load of beeswax
I did a search on rediff.com and got a few sites in case you are interested. The one "qualitative" comment was that beeswax "burns ferociously" when overheated.
http://www.northantsbees.fsnet.co.uk/pages/the_associat...
http://www.honeyshop.co.uk/wax.html
www.dadant.com and www.beeswaxco.com both make candles and maybe they know the fire regulations.
RE: Fuel load of beeswax
RE: Fuel load of beeswax
This translated most of the information on that page.
Unfortunately, it appears that this information relates to a design load based on the volume and area of the plant and not on the actual heat of combustion of beeswax which is the number I’m looking for.
I spent a couple hours searching Google askjeaves , dogpile and a couple other search engines.
I found a lot of links that discussed beeswax including fire safety but these were directed at the home candle maker and not for fire protection in a manufacturing environment
The only one that was any help was a link to http://www.chem.lsu.edu/htdocs/people/lgbutler/1202_Fal..., which is a chemistry lecture on the heat of combustion for paraffin. It’s given as 41.5 kJ/g or 41.5 MJ/Kg
I am looking for the equivalent number for beeswax. If nothing else I will simply repeat the experiment with a beeswax candle.
Thanks for the help.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com
RE: Fuel load of beeswax
Best of luck.