SBIR-STTR Award

The proposed work will provide application data and performance descriptions of alternatives for Halon 1301 for aircraft fire protection and Halon 1211 for ground fire fighting in normally occupied/unoccupied areas. Research will consider physically and chemically active fire extinguishing agents which have low/zero ODP, GWP, and toxicities; in addition to rating high in the assessment against application parameters. The objectives will be accomplished first by assessing application criteria against the halon altenatives ( commercial/research ) and other proven agents. Federally funded data bases and experiments for potential agents for fire/explosion suppression will be analyzed. Studies will look for second generation halon replacements beyond HCFCs and will consider saturated halocarbons (perfluoro, photosensitive, hydrogen-containing compounds), fluorinated carbonyl compounds, unsaturated halocarbons (fluoro- and bromofluoro-alkenes), halogenated ethers (and realtaed com pounds with oxygen added between two carbon groups in an alkane), halons containing iodine, sulfur halides, phosphorous compounds (fire retardants), Group IVA element stable halides, and volatile alakli and heavy metal inhLbitors. Another product of Phase I will be frameworks of data-based agent specifications, which will be finalized in Phase II.

Keywords:
HALONFIREHALO ALTERNATIVES FIRE SUPPRESSION OZONELOW ODP AGENT AIRCRAFT FIRE GROUND FIRE

This halon replacements study was a Phase I SBIR project for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to find a halon-type replacement agent for USAF applications. This baseline study investigated the military requirements for an agent being developed for streaming applications in ground firefighting. The selection process began with a very broad range of chemical types. Chemical families and the influence of functional groups, substitution of high and low ODP/GWP drivers, and molecular size and structure were evaluated. Then pragmatic factors were included for chemicals that could be used within the next several years. The results of the logical analysis show that there are only about ten primary chemicals that have all the characteristics for replacing Halon 1301 for USAF applications in the next few years. Tradeoff analyses show that these ten primary chemicals can be ranked for applications with fire suppression system weight and volume being high priority for aircraft applications. In addition to the identification of primary agents, the advantages of mixtures of chemically active agents, of property modifying mixtures, and of aseotropes were presented. An azeotrope of the primary agents was identified as being a capable flooding agent within the next few years.