Fire extinguished without further hazard

New fire suppressants quickly put out fires, including electrical, without harming people, and are also a lot more friendly to the environment. Both liquid and solid safe fire suppressants are coming to market, the former American, and the latter proven in the Russian space programme. The liquid is designated Novec 1230, and is a completely fluorinated ketone developed by 3M. According to Macron Safety Systems in Great Yarmouth, which makes the 'Hygood' range of extinguishing systems, it is a viable to and long term 'green' equivalent to Halon 1301. It has zero ozone depleting potential, a negligible global warming effect and an atmospheric lifetime of only five days. This compares with FM200, a partly fluorinated ketone, which has an atmospheric lifetime of 31 to 42 years, and Halon 1301, which lasts for 107 years. Most crucially of all, it is effective at 5 to 6% concentration, while humans experience no observable effects at 10% concentration. This contrasts with inert gases, where there is an extremely narrow 7% to 13% margin between putting out the fire and suffocating the people, and agents that are downright poisonous. The gas is dispersed through natural ventilation, leaving no residue to damage sensitive electronic equipment, and is also non conductive and non corrosive. It is stored in cylinders, pressurised with dry nitrogen to an operating pressure of 25 bar at 20 deg C. When discharged, it turns into a gas and releases free radicals to put out the fire. The solid fire suppressant was developed for the Russian Soyuz programme and comes in a device looking like a red hand grenade. The active ingredient is a carbonate compound ejected by a cold burning propellant. As in the case of the 3M products, its great virtue is that it puts out fire without killing personnel, particularly vital in a space capsule where there is nowhere else to go to. The base device declares itself to be a "Pyrogen Aerosol Fire Extinguisher Mag-3M". Brought into the UK as a possible solution to fires in armoured fighting vehicles, it is now being turned into a more commercially oriented product by Presidio Power, after being introduced to the technology by the Defence Diversification Agency branch in Enfield. Presidio is the small Enfield based technology responsible for the fuzzy logic power reduction system described in Eureka's March edition. Managing director Zia Shlaimoun told Eureka that his firm's contribution is a reliable triggering device. The Russian product is currently triggered by a fuse in one end. Defence Diversification Agency Presidio Power Pointers * New non-Halon fire suppressant puts out fires without endangering people and is also much friendlier to the environment * Russian solid material, cold pyrotechnic fire extinguisher achieves same goal in a hand grenade sized device