On all industrial sites where flammable liquids are stored or processed it is mandatory to install a foam extinguishing system. These types of installations effectively extinguish any fire which may occur. According to upcoming European legislation, fluorinated additives must disappear from that extinguishing foam.
Depending on the size of the site, large volumes of firefighting foam may be needed in different locations. To meet this requirement, it is cost effective to install one central firefighting foam storage tank that supplies all fire extinguishing systems. The firefighting foam concentrate is being pumped over long distances to the foam mixing equipment, the same is done with firewater.
To use the above centralised solution, usually requires the use of low-viscosity firefighting foam concentrates, but these foams are only available with fluorinated additives. These man-made additives improve the effectiveness of the concentrate. We call this C6 technology or PFAS molecules, but their addition come at a high environmental cost.
Future European legislation will very likely ban the use of fluorinated additives. It is therefore a good idea to avoid this type of firefighting foam concentrate in new-build installations, and use instead one of the available fluorine-free firefighting foam concentrates.
Fluorine-free concentrates are called F3 concentrates. Typically, they have a higher viscosity compared to traditional concentrates and have pseudoplastic qualities. Because of this variable fluidity it is difficult to calculate the pressure loss during pumping. That is the reason why fluorine-free firefighting foam concentrates often are being avoided, even though new restrictions regarding fluorinated additives are coming.
We decided to deal with this problem. We invested in research on pumping of non-fluorinated firefighting foam concentrates over long distances. Experiments and extensive practical tests of the calculation model we developed have demonstrated that we are proceeding with great accuracy. As a result, it is very clear that we can supply installations with a central supply that are future-proof.
All locations where firefighting foam concentrate will be mixed with extinguishing water, an electronically controlled mixing system is installed. The FoamTronic system enables testing without actually mixing firefighting foam concentrate with water. This method of testing is economically interesting and it does not create wastewater.
Foam extinguishing system
