Fundamental suppression chemistry of clean fire suppressing agents: A review

Clean fire suppressing agents are characterized with unique chemical and physical properties. Strictly speaking, clean fire suppressants are the agents which extinguish fires without follow-up cleaning up exercise leading to business interruption. This is very different from traditional fire suppressing agents such as water, foam, and dry powder, which often result in more secondary damage. Chemical effects play a key role in the fire suppression of clean fire suppressants. In this article, a literature review of the fundamental suppression chemistry of common clean suppressing agents is performed. There are different categories of typical clean suppressing agents with associated research activities reported in the literature. Experimental methods, involving the flame configurations and the diagnostic techniques, are discussed in detail.