Halon: CFCs’ Cousin
How do building owners address halon applications, now that it’s illegal to make?
By C.C. Sullivan, Associate Editor
S
aturday afternoon, a facility manager stops at a
hardware store to pick up materials for a home improvement project. While paying for special-order
wood trim and brass screws, she notices a display
of hand-held fire extinguishers. The professional
stares in amazement at the little products, which boast in
bold, fire-engine red letters: “100 PERCENT HALON.”
Why is she amazed? Because for the last two months, she
has been working with her vice president of Operations
and staff engineers on a plan to convert or replace fire
protection equipment using halon in over a quarter million
square feet of computer rooms nationwide. The plan includes fre protection retrofits and the recycling and banking of halon.
Halon firefighting agents,
like chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)based refrigerants, deplete
the ozone layer. Two chemicals of interest to building
owners - halon 1301 and
1211 - were phased out of
production, as per the 1992
revised Montreal Protocol,
on Jan. 1, says Karen Metchis,
halon sector specialist at the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA’s) Stratospheric Ozone Protection
Division.
Halon 1301 is the agent
used in total flooding systems
- the kind t h a t protect
AT&T
Network
Operations
Center is
an example
o f a hightechnology
center
operating
successfully without halon
1301 total
flooding
systems.
computer installations and electrical/telecommunications infrastructures. Hand-held extinguishers typically
use 1211.
The deadline has passed, but building owners are not
really under the gun, says Gary Taylor, a fire protection
consultant and chair of the Technical Committee for
Halon, established by the parties to the Montreal Protocol.
‘There is a production phaseout, but there are no use controls on existing halons under the Clean Air Act,”he says.
“With both chemicals, there’s no need to spend money
to replace them currently,” echoes Mark Conroy, senior
fire protection engineer for the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA),based in Quincy, MA. “The only time
that one would tear out a system, basically, is if there is
a corporate policy - public relations-type policy - to re7 2 A P R I L 1994
move any ozone-depleting chemicals from the premises.”
Apparently some companies have already taken that
bold step and are removing halon from their facilities.
“They’re being good environmental citizens,” says
Metchis, citing companies like GTE, Northern Telecom,
AT&T, and British Petroleum, which are positioning
themselves for the future of fire protection - and conserving existing supplies of halon.
Lawrence McKenna, a distinguished technical member
of AT&T‘s Environmental and Safety Engineering Center,
describes AT&T’s halon policy. “We have redefined [the
U.N. criteria ofl what ‘essential uses’ are. For 1301, we
found few, if any, essential uses in the corporation. It is
in the process of being
removed worldwide,” he
adds, with total phaseout
within three and five years.
AT&T is also active in the
halon aftermarket. “We
have a national agreement
on the disposal of all excess 1301,” says McKenna,
which includes recycling.
At British Petroleum (BP),
based in Anchorage, the
halon policy is similar: Eliminate nonessential uses and
conserve for other uses,
says Dave Catchpull, coordinator of halon issues. At
such facilities as headquarters offices, halons are
being phased out and rerycled for use in oil and gas processing sites - which are
far more hazardous.
For building owners and facilities managers confronting
these issues now, planning and cost analyses are the first
step. Replacement agents often require some retrofit of
existing fire protection systems, Metchis explains. “If it‘s
a new system, then it‘s no problem.” A retrofit, however,
may be just as extensive (and expensive) as a new system.
For new gaseous-agent extinguishing systems, a brandnew NFPA standard - NFPADOOI - govems the installation of systems based on eight new alternative gaseous
agents. The standard replaces NFPA- 12a, the standard
for 1301.
Casey Grant, P.E., chief systems and applications
engineer of the NFPA, helped develop the standard and
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says, “NFPA-2001is filling a very important piece of the
whole puzzle. Different manufacturers are coming out
with these new replacement agents, but there is still the
question of how you use them. So when the local building official, fire marshal, or insurance person comes in
and says, ‘Put in a system, and put it in according to
something that everyone has agreed on,’ that‘s NFPA2001. It provides the design, installation, maintenance,
operation, and testing criteria for these new clean agents.”
The standard, however, does not address which
gaseous extinguishing agents are appropriate for specific
applications, a question that lies at the heart of fire protection planning.
According to Dan Moore, market development manager of Fluoroproducts at DuPont, based in Wilmington,
DE, halon 1301 is “the one that is the most difficult to
replace” for technical reasons. DuPont‘s candidate agent
to replace 1301, called FE-13, is not a “drop-in,”explains
Moore, because it comes with weight and volume penalties that are shared by all in-kind replacements. For
example, a halon 1301 system that uses one pound of
1301will need 1%pounds of FE-13, and therefore a larger
storage container. Moore contends, “There is no such
thing as a drop-in: You’re going to have to re-think the
distribution and storage system for these agents.”
Some parties - those with vested interest in how the
halon controversy pans out - might disagree. For example, Eli0 Guglielmi, president of North American Fire
Guardian, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, argues
that his company’s NAF S-I11 “isa virtual drop-in replacement to halon 1301 in existing systems.” Adds Guglielmi,
“We’re saying, ‘Yes, you can fit this into your existing
system.’ ” He cites a computer room retrofit at the Canadian Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, where only the nozzle
sizes had to be changed.
EPA’s Metchis is
less optimistic, however, and predicts that
most retrofits will
require changes to the
storage canisters and
piping, as well as nozzle replacements. The
same control panel,
detectors, and other
parts of the systems
can be reused, says
the NFPA’s Grant, “but
you typically need to
get new containers,
because those that are
[ULor FM] listed for
halon 130 1 typically
are not used to handle
other agents.” The
storage containers use
rubber seals, adds
Grant, which can react
differently with halon
alternatives and could
cause leaks.
Many fire protection
engineers see a silver
lining around the cloud of halon, arguing that the phaseout is prompting owners to re-think their fire suppression systems. AT&T’s McKenna contends that halonbased systems are unreliable and hard to engineer. He
also cautions owners to check for possible leakage in
hand-held canisters with rubber O-rings, which can
react adversely to 1211. BPs Catchpull adds that his
company is moving to “pre-action sprinklers and earlydetection COZ underfloor systems” for its computer
rooms, so that potential sources of fire are snuffed out
before causing any damage.
Iden%ng and selecting substitutes for retrofits is only
part of the challenge. Managing existing supplies of halon
is just as critical. Because fire protection systems have a
very fast rate of commissioning and decommissioning,
huge quantities of halon are available at any time for
recycling, banking, and re-sale (see “Halon Expert Talks,”
page 74).
T
he Halon Recycling Corp. (HRC), based in Washington, D.C., has been actively seeking and brokering recycled halon 1301 since last August,
says Executive Director Tom Cortina, and can be
reached at (800) 258-1283. Sensitive to environmental concems, the HRC is trying to sell the halon only
where it is really needed. “You really have to look at the
function [of the 13011 and determine whether it‘s critical
in a broad sense,” says Cortina of how recycled halons
are reused. “Aviation is a critical use, and North Slope oil
production in Alaska is another area.” Many others can
qual@ for certification as a “critical”user.
According to Cortina, distributors are involved in the
halon recycling market, and several large corporations
have established their own recycling subsidiaries. While
b
The new
generation
of safe,
environmentally
friendlyj i i -e
protection
systems
have no
ozone
depletion
potential
(ODP).
B U I L D I N G S7 3
FIRESAFETY
AND
HALON
users may encounter problems accessing them.
on alternatives,” explains HRC’s Cortina. And if recycled
halon is in the cards for protecting computer rooms and
other specialized areas from fire damage, availabilitymust
be assessed.
For now, building owners should meticulously maintain halon fire protection systems to prevent accidental
discharges and loss of halons.
The halon phaseout, like any other facilities management issue, & play out in favor of those who plan boldly
and logically for the uncertainties of tomorrow.
El
Y
F
or owners, homework is the key to successfully
managing computer room fire protection in these
changing times. “If it‘s a retrofit,”explains Metchis,
“that‘s where you have to ask, Which is better for
us? Can we retrofit cost-effectively or should we
look at the recycled halon market? ”
Another Washington group, the Halon Alternatives
Halon Expert Talks to
Facilities Managers
Gary Taylor, a recognized expert on halons and fire protection, targeted the buildings industry for research when
he was chair of the Technical Committee for Halon, established by the parties to the Montreal Protocol:
“We talked to some of the quite large property owners
and building operators exactly about [the use of halon
and the halon phaseout], to find out how long a lease
was typically, how long their clients who had computer
facilities leased, when they renewed, if they renewed
once, twice, whatever.
“We found quite a trend that showed that the lifetime
of a computer room in a commercial building is about the
same a s a long-running TV series; five
years is a long time.
“And at the end of five years, the technology has changed
and it’s virtually
obsolete: or they’re
moving. In an awful
lot of cases a lot of
these mergers that have
taken place have been to
reduce the cost of overhead of support
facilities such as computer facilities.”
At the end of five years, concludes
Taylor,
that halon becomes available for recycling and reuse. This is
a key issue for the commercial aviation industry, which
is in dire need of halon 1301 to service aircraft fire protection systems.
Those with excess 1301 do not seem to be aware of the
critical need, however. A current shortage of recycled
1301 has been attributed to potential donors who are
banking their excess, rather than making it available.
Some manufacturers of replacement agents disagree,
and predict a surplus of available halons.
u
74 APRIL 1994
1
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