Gas mixtures containing nitrogen, argon and sometimes also carbon dioxide are used for fire suppression in buildings, on board ships and in offshore oil and gas processing rigs.
Research and practical experience over many years has demonstrated the efficacy of gas mixtures comprising argon in the range 40‑50% and carbon dioxide in the range 0‑10% in a balance of nitrogen. In the event of a fire, the gas is automatically released from a bank of cylinders and mixes with air present in the room to create an environment of approximately 65‑70% nitrogen, 12‑13% oxygen, 15‑20% argon and 0‑4% carbon dioxide. The resultant gas mixture in the room will therefore rapidly extinguish fire and simultaneously provide a short-term safe environment for any person within the occupied area to enable evacuation.
Since these fire suppression gas mixtures contain only inert gases, they do not decompose in a fire to create toxic or corrosive by-products. A bank of such gas cylinders can be placed remotely from the protected area to avoid using the floor space in the protected area of the building for gas bottle storage.
Several leading fire safety companies worldwide market proprietary inert gas fire suppression gas mixtures with trade names such as Inergen® and Argonite®.
At Coregas we support this safe and environmentally friendly fire‑fighting process by filling the relevant fire suppression gas mixtures at our cylinder filling stations in Australia for fire suppression management companies such as Wormald, Tyco, JCI and Kidde. We also offer cylinder maintenance and stocking services to these fire suppression service providers.
Coregas does not fill fire suppression gas mixtures directly for end-user customers.
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