Aerosol Forming Compositions for Fire Fighting Applications: A Review

Aerosol forming compositions (AFCs) have come up as one of the most efficient fire extinguishing Halon alternative since the implementation of Montreal protocol-1987 on ozone layer depleting substances. These aerosol based systems have gained much attention in recent years because of higher fire extinguishing efficiencies, modular nature, non pressurized container, less maintenance requirement, extended shelf-life and negligible ODP, GWP and ALT values. Aerosols are traditionally produced using pyrotechnique compositions having mostly metal salts of group IA or IIA. Potassium nitrate has been used predominantly as oxidizing agent (40–75%, w/w), whereas for electric and electronics systems, strontium nitrate (15–70%, w/w) has been recommended. Versatile reducing agent, binders, gas forming agents, burn rate modifiers and many such functional additives have been used recently for preparations of AFCs. AFCs indicated variable burn rate values, 2–7 mm/s. AFCs were found highly efficient with minimum fire extinguishing concentrations mostly ranging between 30 g/m³ and 200 g/m³. Moreover, the development of highly efficient, non-corrosive, non-toxic and environmentally benign AFC is still an elusive goal. This review mainly focuses on advances of aerosol forming chemical compositions, its future prospects and potential research areas.