Outline 1 Why Should I Use It

2 What Is Foam

3 How Does It Work

4 Foam Development

5 When Should not use It

6 How Should I Use It

7 Where Should I Use It

Foam 101
 Fact & Environmental
Aspect of C6 Foam
Concentrate

Mr. Nigel Choo

Sales Manager
(Foam Products SEA)

1 Johnson Controls
 Function of the Primary Ingredients in AFFF

Surface-Active Agent
• Fluorosurfactants & Hydrocarbon Surfactants
• Rapid coverage and extinguishing
Source: dynaxcorp.com
• Prevent foam blanket from “burning”

• Foaming

• High Thermal Stability

• Optimize surface and interfacial tension

• Superior penetrating qualities

• Solvents
• Keep everything in solution

2 Johnson Controls
 Key Facts on AFFF / AR-AFFF
• Two distinct processes: Electrochemical
Fluorination (ECF) and Telomerization

• All modern AFFF agents contain telomer-

based fluorosurfactants

• Telomer-based AFFF agent technology is

collectively recognized as the most
effective fire-fighting foam available

▪ Rapidly spreads across surface

▪ Aqueous film formation preventing
evaporation & re-ignition
▪ Vapor suppression
▪ Rapid knockdown and extinguishment
▪ Foam blanket resealing
▪ Superior burnback resistance
5 Johnson Controls
What is PFAS, PFOS & PFOA ?
• PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s
• Totaling up to 4700 man-made chemicals
• PFOS and PFOA (sometimes known as “C8”) and are the two PFAS that have been the most extensively produced
and therefore are the most studied of these chemicals.
• PFOS and PFOA are Persistent, Bioaccumulate and Toxic (PBT) to the environment.

Source: cityoffullerton.com

Source: wateronline.com

6 Johnson Controls
Road Map of Synthetic AFFF Foam

7 Johnson Controls
The EU restriction of PFOA in firefighting foam
EU-Regulation 2019/1021 – Where PFOA was listed under POP Regulation in July 2020. What does this really means?

Does firefighting foam contain more than 25ppb No Good to go for now. However, beware that
PFOA? restrictions do change.

Yes (Extinguishing of Class B liquid fire)

Training
Firefighting foam that
does not meet the
limit
value shall not be
used for training as of
4th July 2020.
Testing
Firefighting foam that
does not meet the
limit value shall not
be used for testing as
of 4th July 2020,
unless all released
foam can be collected
and processed.
Stockpiles
Application
From 4th July 2025,
Use only permitted at no further use is
locations where all allowed. Residual
released foam liquid stocks of AFFF
can be collected and containing PFOA
processed. Effective must be processed as
from 1st Jan 2023. hazardous waste.

8 Johnson Controls
Environmental & Human Impact

Serum Elimination Half-Life

Measurement PFOS (ECF) PFHxS (ECF) PFOA (ECF) PFHxA [FT]

Half life in rats; 15 – 20 days; 2 days; 6 – 20 days; 1 – 2 hrs;

monkeys; 3 – 4.5 mths; 4 – 5 mths; 0.7-1 mth; 1 – 2 days;
humans (5.4 yrs) (8.5 yrs) (3.5 yrs) 0.5 – 1.5 mths
(32days)

Source:
1. Russell, Nilsson, Buck, (2013) Elimination kinetics of perfluorohexanoic acid in humans and comparison with mouse, rat and monkey.
2. Rotander (2015) Novel Fluorinated Surfactants Tentatively Identified in Firefighters Using Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometry and a Case-
Control Approach

9 Johnson Controls
 Environmental Assessment of C6
Recent studies indicate that the breakdown products of C6-based fluorosurfactants used in AFFF foams:
▪ Are lower in acute and aquatic toxicity
▪ Have lower bio-persistence and are not bio-accumulative
▪ Telomer-based C6 fluorochemical do not produce PFOS nor break down to yield PFOA
▪ Meets US EPA PFOA Stewardship Program and REACH Regulation (EU) 2017/1000 requirement

Nigel Choo
Sales Manager, Foam - South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia and Pakistan
Johnson Controls

nigel.choo@jci.com

10 Johnson Controls
3x3 AR-NFF* -
Redefining Performance
*Non- Fluorinated Foam

Mr. Dave Ramsay

Regional Sales Manager
(Foam Products APAC)

1 Johnson Controls
Glossary – what Non-Fluorinated
Foams do or don’t do
There is some confusion in the industry about “Non-Fluorinated Foams”

FFF • Fluorine Free isn’t a correct chemistry statement as possibly even tap water may have
traces of Fluor today. JCI has decided to push the NFF wording (Non-Fluorinated Foam).

• Different identification within Codes & Standards: S category by UL, SFFF in NFPA and
FM or F3 in European standard.

Film • NFFs foams do not form a Film over Hydrocarbons like AFFFs.

• NFFs are not (yet?) step-in (or drop-in) replacement products to AR-AFFFs or AFFFs
(higher application rates and/or viscosities may require up to complete systems re-design)

VS • NFFs are not or less oleophobic (= higher fuel pick up on forceful applications) …

• NFFs are requiring a minimum expansion to perform well (Expanded foam layer
necessary as opposed to AFFF historical Film benefit effect).

2 © 2021 Johnson Controls. All Rights Reserved.

Glossary – what Non-Fluorinated
Foams do or don’t do
There is some confusion in the industry about “Non-Fluorinated Foams”

• Vast majority of AR-NFFs are highly viscous (eg. Many F3-AR 3x3 are playing in range
above 5000 cPs and even up to nearly 7000 cPs @ 30rpm).

• Standard UL listing for NFF testing at much higher rates than AFFFs.

• Most NFFs are not compatible with Dry Chemical Powders (purposely omitted in TDs ?)

• NFF should not be mixed together in storage due to many different chemistry technology
platforms being used by manufacturers.

Foam
• Very limited offering UL or FM sprinklers approvals on key Fuels

• Many NF Foams are not suitable for Salt Water use

• NFFs are struggling with high vapor pressure hydrocarbons fuels like Gasoline.

3 © 2021 Johnson Controls. All Rights Reserved.

 …For reference
All standards test NFFs the same EN Test Rate

way as AFFF ?
2.53 L/m2/min

Key Points from UL-162 Listings on Hydrocarbons:

UL UL
Test Rate Design Rate
(lpm.m2) (lpm.m2)
▪ UL-162 classifies NFFs under the Synthetic (S) 2.4 F3s 6.5

category which has different test criteria and design 1.6 AFFFs 4.1

densities than AFFF products.

▪ Regardless of performance, to qualify for an AFFF
category the product must have film forming
characteristics, i.e. AFFFs. NFF products are not
film forming and are therefore listed under the
Synthetic category with a design application density
of 6.5 lpm/m2

Lower safety factory S vs AFFF

 JCI’s 3%x3% AR-NFF has been witnessed by 3rd
Party to pass AFFF test requirements i.e.
 Test Application density of 1.6 lpm/m2
 Foam application time of 3 minutes
 Burn-back time of 9 minutes

4 © 2021 Johnson Controls. All Rights Reserved.

All standards test NFFs the same way as AFFF ?
Key Points from UL-162 Listings on Hydrocarbons:

Application Foam Concentrate Fuel Group Test Application density Time of Foam Duration until Minimum design
gpm/ft2 (lpm/m2) application burnback ignition application density

Type III S (Synthetic) Hydrocarbons 0.06 (2.4) 5 min 15 min 0.16 (6.5)
AFFF / AR-AFFF Hydrocarbons 0.04 (1.6) 3 min 9 min 0.10 (4.1)
Type II S (Synthetic) Hydrocarbons 0.06 (2.4) 5 min 15 min 0.10 (4.1)
AFFF / AR-AFFF Hydrocarbons 0.04 (1.6) 3 min 9 min 0.10 (4.1)

XXX AFFF test criteria Synthetic test criteria

Nozzle Flow (App Rate x Pan size) 2 gpm ( 7.57 L/min) 3 gpm (11.35 L/min)

Time of Foam Application 3 min 5 min

Total Foam discharge to extinguish 6 Gallons (22,7 Litre) of Foam 15 Gallons (56,75 Litre) of Foam

# 250%

5 © 2021 Johnson Controls. All Rights Reserved.