Which is better, the inert gas represented by IG541 or the chemical gas represented by heptafluoropropane and perfluoroethylene?
It was once believed that chemical gas extinguishing agents would eventually be replaced by natural green inert gas extinguishing agents. However, over the past 20 years, hydrofluorocarbon chemical gas fire extinguishing agents, represented by heptafluoropropane, are still widely used clean gas fire extinguishing agents. The fire extinguishing efficiency of chemical gas fire extinguishing agents masks their own disadvantages, making it difficult to dominate gas fire extinguishing for a long time.
What is chemical gas extinguishing agent?
The so-called chemical gas fire extinguishing agents refer to halogenated alkyl (1211, 1301), hydrofluorocarbons (heptafluoropropane, trifluoromethane, hexafluoropropane), perfluorohexanone and other fire extinguishing agents, which are all synthetic fire extinguishing agents, usually called chemical gas fire extinguishing agents.
And what is inert gas extinguishing agent?
Inert gas fire extinguishing agents, also known as Ig series fire extinguishing agents, are derived from the brand name of Inergen (smoke burning) of ANSUL company in the United States. The numerical code added behind them represents the component proportions of nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide respectively. Inert gas fire extinguishing agents are atmospheric components, derived from natural or industrial by-products. They are pure "green" gas fire extinguishing agents, commonly including IG541, IG100, IG01.
First, explain the advantages of the two and compare them.
Advantages of inert gas extinguishing agent:
1. Pure "green" gas extinguishing agent
Inert gas fire extinguishing agents are atmospheric components, derived from natural or industrial by-products. They are pure "green" gas fire extinguishing agents. Their ozone depletion potential ODP and global warming potential GWP are zero.
2. There is no cold shock effect during spraying, which will not cause visual impairment
Under normal circumstances, chemical gas fire extinguishing agents will have a certain condensation effect when they are liquefied and stored, which may affect human body and high-precision equipment, and produce a large amount of condensation mist, causing visual impairment. Inert gas extinguishing agents are usually stored in gaseous state. When sprayed, they basically have no condensation effect and will not cause similar problems.
3. No decomposition products
The main extinguishing mechanism of most chemical extinguishing agents is to extinguish the fire by interrupting the combustion chain, and there will be decomposition products under high temperature. Inert gas extinguishing agents mainly extinguish fire by suffocation, and there is basically no similar problem.
5、 Advantages of chemical gas extinguishing agent:
1. For the same protected object, the amount of bottle storage is less:
Taking a 100 square meter computer room (4m floor high) as an example, using heptafluoropropane requires about 3 90L bottle groups (90kg), and using IG541 requires about 14 90L bottle groups (15MPa).
The large number of bottle groups requires more storage space, which also increases the daily operation and maintenance cost.
2. Low pressure level of storage bottle:
At present, the pressure levels of inert gas fire extinguishing devices are mainly 15MPa and 20MPa, and heptafluoropropane fire extinguishing devices are 1.6Mpa, 2.5MPa, 4.2mpa and 5.6mpa, which are lower than that of inert gas fire extinguishing systems.
3. Shorter extinguishing time:
Generally, the spraying time of inert gas fire extinguishing system is 60s, while the spraying time of heptafluoropropane, trifluoromethane, hexafluoropropane, perfluorohexanone and other fire extinguishing systems is not more than 10s.
4. It has more application forms:
Heptafluoropropane is suitable for hanging devices, cabinet devices and pipe network systems, while hexafluoropropane is suitable for hanging devices and portable fire extinguishers. The inert gas fire extinguishing system is usually only suitable for pipe network system because of its high storage pressure and many application bottle groups, which is the main reason for restricting the application of inert gas fire extinguishing system.
Inert gases and chemical gases will eventually be divided into two routes, rather than the relationship between who replaces who, and in the future, green inert gases will have better development space.
