Environmental impact is now one of the major considerations in the oil and gas industry when selecting firefighting systems, together with the speed and efficiency with which the agent extinguishes a fire. This has led to a number of new systems coming onto the market since the banning of Halon 1301.
However, many of these potential replacements have failed to live up to expectations in environmental terms, particularly since the Kyoto Protocol on climate change established the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The criteria for a successful and sustainable solution means excluding any of the greenhouse gases identified by the Kyoto Protocol that represent man-made interference with the global climate system. The acceptable solution must have a negligible impact on the environment, insignificant global warming potential, zero ozone depleting potential and a low atmospheric lifetime. This is a daunting challenge that continues to elude many fire safety companies.
However, one solution has come to the fore in the past couple of years, which uses new technology and is the result of close cooperation between Tyco and 3M. Called Sapphire, and available through Tyco Safety Products Fire Suppression Group, it utilises the 3M Novec1230 fluid that is stored in containers as a low vapour pressure fluid that transmutes into a colourless and odourless gas when discharged.
Unlike other fluid fire extinguishing agents, Sapphire can be used with absolute confidence to suppress fires involving vital electronic, computing or communications equipment. Typical total flooding applications use between just four and six per cent by volume of the fluid, which is well below the agent’s saturation or condensation level. When discharged, the agent is dispersed through natural ventilation, leaving no residue to damage sensitive equipment. It is also non-conductive and non-corrosive.
Sapphire has an insignificant global warming potential that is lower than any of the halocarbon agents acceptable for use in occupied spaces, such as control rooms and command centres. Installations have an installed footprint similar to that of chemically-based clean agent systems and, most significantly, the Novec1230 fluid has the lowest level of design concentration and the highest safety margin of any viable Halon1301 or chemical alternative. While certain hydrofluorocarbons – more frequently known as HFCs – and inert gases are used at design concentrations that are below the NOAEL or No Observed Adverse Effect Level, with safety margins that range from seven per cent to 20percent, no other Halon alternative comes anywhere close to the Sapphire 92percent safety margin.
Sapphire also has a remarkably low atmospheric lifetime of just five days, so does not have any appreciable impact on climate change. To put this into perspective, this five-day lifetime compares with an atmospheric life for Halon1301 of a staggering 107 years. The fluid has a global warming potential of just one. This means that 2800kgs of the Novec1230 fluid would have to be released to have the same impact on climate change as just 1kg of a typical HFC alternative.

John Allen is with Tyco Safety Products Fire Suppression Group, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK. www. tycoint.com