Harmfulness and corrosiveness of thermal decomposition products produced by halocarbon clean agents as the fire size in small space

Abstract

SummaryAmong various gaseous fire extinguishing agents, the halocarbon clean agent is known as an environment‐friendly nontoxic fire extinguishing agent having a low environmental influence and harmfulness. However, as researches on the influence of the halogenated compound clean fire extinguishing agent on thermal decomposition products (hydrogen fluoride (HF), carbonyl fluoride (COF2)) make progress, the harmfulness and the secondary damages caused by the corrosiveness of HF. In this research, the quantity/tendency of thermal decomposition products produced by halocarbon clean agents (HFC‐125, HFC‐227ea, FK‐5‐1‐12) was measured to analyze their harmfulness to life as well as their corrosiveness. According to the analyzed results, highly corrosive HF increased as the size of the fire increased, and corrosiveness of the metal samples increased as well. However, the concentration level of HF and COF2 indicated different tendencies depending on the fire extinguishing agent. In particular, for the case of HFC‐125, approximately 1000 ppm of COF2 indicating a toxicity level higher than that indicated by HF was produced as the fire size, and this proves that this agent is very harmful to life. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct a number of researches for thermal decomposition products on harmfulness of HF and on COF2 as well.