ASSESSMENT OF FIRE HAZARD OF POLYMER WASTE DURING TRANSPORTATION BY RAILWAY TRANSPORT

Plastics account for the majority of the fire load in residential and commercial buildings. As polymeric materials are poorly degradable, polymer waste disposal represents a serious and long-term environmental problem. As a promising rail freight, the polymer fraction of municipal solid waste requires further study to determine transport conditions and fire safety solutions. The NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter® synchronous thermal analysis (combined thermogravimetry/differential scanning calorimetry) evaluated the mass loss at different temperatures of polymer waste samples: low-pressure polyethylene, high-pressure polyethylene, elastic polyurethane foam and polyvinyl chloride. The obtained results allow estimating the fire hazard of the polymeric fraction of municipal solid waste. It is reasonable to use them to determine the conditions of transport and justify the fire safety requirements for transporting polymeric waste by railway transport.