John Ottesen, CEO at Fomtec, highlights the advancements in fluorine-free foam testing, documentation processes, and ongoing research to broaden emergency response capabilities for challenging fuel types

Up until now, and continuing this year, 2024 for us at Fomtec has been about carrying out extensive testing.

We have surpassed 3,000 fire tests at this point.

We are continually adding data points and approvals for our fluorine-free foams, documenting their performance when used with specific discharge devices.

Now, we are broadening the range of different kinds of fuels we test on.

There are thousands of different polar solvents, which are water-miscible fuels.

We are documenting the performance of our products on various polar solvent fuels.

The polar solvent testing challenge

In the past, testing was grouped into main categories such as: alcohols, ketones or acetates.

For example, if you tested on isopropanol, it would cover your product for all kinds of alcohols like ethanol and methanol.

If you tested on acetone, it would cover all the ketones, which is a vast group of different chemicals.

However, with fluorine-free foams, we have found that you can’t group polar solvents in that way.

We’ve seen that you can test on one ketone and get a good result, and then test on another ketone and get a very bad result.

This opened up a Pandora’s box: what do we need to do?

We have approached this challenge in two ways.

First, we are conducting fire tests on a huge array of fuels using different heads, sprinklers, or nozzles.

However, since there are thousands of fuels, it’s practically impossible to fire-test them all.

Simultaneously, we have spent the past three years developing a predictive model—a very powerful scientific tool—that enables us, based on a product’s CAS number, to predict how our foam will perform on a certain fuel.

This predictive tool allows us to give initial indications, which can then lead to the necessity of doing further fire testing.

For some predictions, we can confidently say it will work; others are borderline and require additional testing.

So now, in 2024, we have conducted a lot of additional fuel testing with our foams to broaden the scope and documentation for our products.

There are multiple sessions happening still this year, which will add data points that we use when we speak with our customers about their applications.

Advanced stationary testing

The second big focus in 2024 was that, having done so much in the realm of stationary, fixed fire protection, we wanted to look more closely into emergency response.

The fundamental difference between a fixed system and an emergency response manual system is that in a fixed system, you design it according to a standard, and if there’s an incident, the system just needs to do its job.

You can’t go in and change anything—you can’t add another nozzle or increase the application density.

It’s already fixed; it just has to work when needed.

Emergency response is very different because you can add more nozzles, increase your application density, and change your tactics.

It’s a very different environment, so we decided that 2024 would be the year we move more into emergency response.

We have spent a lot of time and effort this year participating in more large-scale fire testing.

When we talk about large scale, we’re going from the 50 square foot (4.5 square meter) size up to a few hundred square meters.

We’ve done some testing on our own in Texas on larger fires, and we’ve also taken part in sessions organized by LASTFIRE to gain a deeper understanding of how our product scales.

We wanted to see how the results from a 4.5 square meter fire translate when scaled up to 300 square meters.

Does the performance follow through, or does it fall apart?

What we’ve seen so far is that it certainly follows through—the performance is there.

However, we also see that performance depends upon the application method—the physical method you use when you apply the foam.

There are slight variances in efficiency depending on how you deploy the foam, but basically, we have seen that it performs very well when you scale up.

That’s been a significant part of what we’ve done this year, and we will continue doing more of that kind of work.

Next-generation foam

We’re always pushing for the next generation. This industry is probably into its fifth generation of fluorine-free foam now, and our eyes are fixed on generation six and seven.

There’s a lot of very interesting future formulations in our lab at the moment.

We’re squarely focused on the next generation. We’re always pushing the boundaries.

We’re booking multiple sessions for testing next year. We’re never going to stop testing because there’s always scope for improvement.

We keep adding data points, enabling safer transitions for customers.

It all comes down to when we get questions from customers like: “Will your product work in our system?” For example, this week we received an Excel sheet from a client working to protect a manufacturer of perfumes, and they had a list of 1,000 different chemicals.

When you get a list like that and they ask, “Will your foam work?”—how do you answer such a question? You have to have a huge set of data points.

Obviously, we haven’t tested all of these, but we have tested a lot of different products, which means we have a very wide data set that we can use when we make that assessment.

We’re also moving into the larger emergency response is with the aim of entering the oil and gas industry, because that’s where you find these big fires.

Going into 2024, my aim was to make a more significant impact in that market, which has actually happened.

We’ve had a couple of really good collaborations with huge multinational oil companies this year.

Going into 2025, this gives you a bit of an overview of what we’ve been up to lately.

This article was originally published in the November 2024 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.