Most foams, if not all, that are "biodegradable" are unacceptable with performance at extinguishing large liquid pool fires of depth. These biodegradable foams probably could put out a spill fire; they are only mm's deep. But these spill fires burnout in just a few minutes without replenishment, anyway.
Fluorinated foams pose biohazards, regardless of what the adverts would have us believe; highly dependent upon the specifics of the surfactant used. The engineering assessment (err, the political decision) has to weigh whether the fire risk is worth the environmental risk. In the case of oil terminals with tens of millions of dollars in assets per tank, the environmental risk is acceptable to many, including myself. It is a case by case decision, depending in part whether drinking water is drawn from the water table over which the released foam will be diffusing. Scot Deal MSc Fire Protection Engineer/BSc Chemical Engineering Fire Safety Engineering - -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/private/sprinklerforum/attachments/20120216/78fb9b8d/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
