Fire suppression agent FS 49 C2® is an environmentally engineered, human safe, fast extinguishing Clean Agent fire extinguishing gas for gaseous fire suppression installed in a suited fire suppression system. The Clean agent FS 49 C2® is thermal extinguishing gas that extinguishes fire without removing the oxygen from the air. This makes it possible to extinguish a fire with people in the room surviving at extinguishing concentrations. That is a big difference in comparison to use a Carbon Dioxide (CO2) based fire suppression system which is deadly to humans when released.
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FS 49 C2® acts similar to as an inert gas. The heat produced from the combustion process is absorbed by the extinguishant. This mechanism is consistent with the observation that there is no decrease in the fire heat release rate as long as the amount of extinguishment agent added, is below a certain limit, and as soon as more extinguishment agent is added the fire is then extinguished.
The difference from inert gases and FS 49 C2® is that it takes less gas to suppress a fire, and therefore less space is consumed by storage of gas to a fire extinguishing system. How much space saved will depend on the pressure used when filling the cylinder. It may vary between a 50-90% saving of storage space.
The gas consists of Tetra Flouro Ethane, Penta Fluoro Ethane and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Extensive research has led to the development of a clean gaseous fire extinguishing agent FS 49 C2®, physical properties of which are similar to those of Halon 1301.
The agent causes considerably less damage to the environment. The main component of FS 49 C2 is the most widely used replacement gas for refrigeration systems, characterized by zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) factor. The FS 49 C2 is suitable to replace Halon 1301 as a "drop in" upgrade of existing Halon systems.
If a room is filled 12% by FS 49 C2® it is sufficient to suppress a flame based fire. The time a system use to release the gas into a room is:
Marine based installations: 8 seconds. Land based installations: 10 seconds.
Even though the FS 49 C2® gas itself doesn't leave dangerous gasses after being released into air it is recommended to use a SCBA - Self-contained breathing apparatus when entering a room after a fire because after a fire process it will release different potential harmful gasses into the air.
UNEP banned the use of Halon gases in the Montreal Protocol treaty in 1987 due to the Ozone depletion and the Ozone depleting effect of Halon gases. The development countries were granted with extension in their permit to still be using Halon until 2010. It is after 2010 considered important by UNEP that also the development countries replace their Halon with Ozone friendly alternatives according to the signed treaty.
In Europe FS 49 C2® is distributed by Brassbell and Bejaro. In Latin America and the Caribbean FS 49 C2® is distributed by Incosafety Corp.