Opinion ID: 2960144
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Properties of Calhypo

Text: In divining the cause of the fire, the parties focused on PPG’s calhypo, an industrial bactericide sometimes identified as “UN 2880,” its designation under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (“IMDG Code”). Calhypo is an unstable substance that continually 1 We recently decided another case involving an explosion aboard a containership that was precipitated by calhypo, Contship Containerlines, Ltd. v. PPG Indus., Inc., 442 F.3d 74 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 127 S. Ct. 565 (2006), and other courts have also encountered cases involving calhypo, e.g., Lowe’s Home Ctrs., Inc. v. Olin Corp., 313 F.3d 1307 (11th Cir. 2002); Ionmar Compania Naviera, S.A. v. Olin Corp., 666 F.2d 897 (5th Cir. 1982); Compania Sudamericana de Vapores S.A. v. Sinochem Tianjin Co., No. 06 Civ. 13765(WHP), 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24737 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 4, 2007); Standard Commercial Tobacco Co. v. M/V “Recife”, 827 F. Supp. 990 (S.D.N.Y. 1993). 5 decomposes at room temperature. It is an oxidizer, which means that it releases oxygen in most reactions. Most importantly, however, calhypo is prone to “thermal runaway,” a phenomenon in which the heat naturally produced by the calhypo serves to heat the calhypo further, thus causing it, in turn, to generate even more heat. Thermal runaway operates like a feedback loop. As one expert witness explained, “[t]he higher the temperature, the faster the reaction, and the reaction becomes circular inasmuch as it generates the heat, [and the heat] causes [the reaction] to go faster.” This snowballing reaction “runs away, goes critical, and [it] get[s] to the point where it just goes so fast that the material explodes, it deflagrates, decomposes and reaches the point where we have a fire ensuing.” A number of extrinsic factors can exacerbate this phenomenon. For example, if calhypo is tightly enclosed in a container from which heat cannot easily escape, it might more easily succumb to thermal runaway. Likewise, calhypo might more readily exhibit thermal runaway if exposed to an external or “radiant” source of heat. The most important factor in predicting the decomposition and eventual combustion of calhypo is its “critical ambient temperature” or “CAT.” As PPG correctly notes, “CAT is the minimum temperature at which a heat-sensitive product will begin to retain more heat than it dissipates.” The CAT of a given amount of calhypo “depends inversely upon the size of the sample; as the mass increases, the critical temperature decreases.” Standard Commercial Tobacco Co. v. M/V “Recife”, 827 F. Supp. 990, 993 (S.D.N.Y. 1993). For example, in Recife, the district court found that the CAT “of a single pellet of [calhypo] is approximately 180 degrees C.” Id. In the instant case, which involves a much larger amount of calhypo, the district court found the CAT to be considerably lower. The exact CAT is elusive. One expert in this case 6 “testified that he did not find any data from which he could ascertain the . . . CAT of the ‘specific material’ carried on the Harmony.” In re M/V DG Harmony, 394 F. Supp. 2d 649, 669 n.28 (S.D.N.Y. 2005). Nevertheless, the district court believed it could make a rough estimate of the CAT of the calhypo onboard the Harmony, judging it to be below 41°C. Id. at 669.