The storage and transport of hazardous fluid substances poses challenges because of potential or actual damage to persons, equipment or the environment. Fluid substances pose a greater risk than solid ones, because a fluid, whether liquid or gas, is likely to disseminate more rapidly than a solid. Furthermore, if the fluid is a fuel or potential fuel, the failure to contain the fluid (whether intentional or accidental), may lead to detonation or ignition, resulting in explosion or fire.
The act of freezing a hazardous fluid fuel, thereby to render it a solid fuel, is known to increase the stability of the fuel, reducing the risk of fire and/or explosion; Chilling a fuel may have a similar effect. Freezing a hazardous substance will make it easier to contain in the event of a breach of the container. To the extent that chilling a hazardous substance increases its viscosity/decreases its fluidity, the chilling process will lessen the consequences of a breach of the substance container, by decreasing the rate at which the substance emerges from the compromised container.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds