WHITE PAPER

Background
Clean agent suppressants serve a key need in fire-protecting
mission-critical and irreplaceable assets in data centers, power
generation and transmission facilities, marine spaces, historic and
heritage locations, and much more. With their rapid discharges,
chemical clean agents are unmatched when it comes to quickly
establishing a protected environment. One of the most popular
chemical clean agents is a fluoroketone introduced by 3M under the
trade name Novec 1230.1

With the expiration of 3M’s patents, some manufacturers have started

offering generic variants of the FK-5-1-12 suppressant. While
increased supply and competition is good for the industry and users,
concerns have also been raised over the purity and safety of these
new FK-5-1-12 supplies.
New language about purity and toxicity were introduced in both NFPA
2001 and ISO 14520 to protect users and safeguard the reputation of
and trust in the fire protection industry.
Collaborating with experts serving on the technical committees
leading these changes, Kidde Fire Systems, one of the world’s leading
suppliers of chemical agent-based fire suppressants, has played an
active role in this effort.
Kidde’s Quality Control Measures
Kidde verifies every batch of Fluoro-K to the stringent requirements
established by NFPA and ISO at the direction of US EPA. (See Table 1
below.) Not only is the agent tested during and post-production by its
manufacturer, it is also tested at a state-of-the-art testing center
established at Kidde’s headquarters in Ashland, Massachusetts. Kidde
PhD-level Research Scientists and Chemists ensure the purity of the
agent using Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectroscopy and a range of
other equipment and capabilities.

What is Minimum Design Concentration

Kidde Fluoro-K™ (MDC) and Why is it Important?
In December 2022, 3M announced 2 its decision to exit the As part of introducing any new fire suppressant on the market, suppliers
manufacturing of Novec 1230 by the end of 2025, effectively placing must undertake fire testing to verify the Minimum Extinguishing
purity and toxicity concerns regarding the generic supply in the Concentration (MEC) of their product. Each new agent is tested
spotlight. Later, in September 2023, 3M updated its decision and independently for Class A and Class B hazard protection, and the results
communicated its last Novec 1230 ship date as December 2024. of these tests then determine the Minimum Design Concentration (MDC)
values for the respective Class A, Class B and Class C applications using
In response to these supply shocks Kidde quickly accelerated its efforts
that agent. Ultimately, the higher the tested MEC of an agent, the more
to release to the market Kidde Fluoro-K™ – a branded FK-5-1-12 chemical
of that agent is required for a given application, whereas for lower MEC
clean agent. Kidde has ensured full system listing with its complementary
values, less of that agent is required.
agent delivery system hardware, and also is exerting control on the
quality of every batch of agent supplied, as described below.
Table 1 FK-5-1-12 Quality Requirements
Property Specification Source
Agent Purity, mole%, minimum 99.000 NFPA 2001, Table 5.1.2(a)
Acidity, ppm (by weight HCL equiv.), maximum 3.000 NFPA 2001, Table 5.1.2(a)
Water content, weight %, maximum 0.001 NFPA 2001, Table 5.1.2(a)
Non-volatile residue, g/100ml, maximum 0.050 NFPA 2001, Table 5.1.2(a)
Kinetic dimers of HFP, mg/kg <2850.000 NFPA 2001, A.5.1.2.3
Thermodynamic dimer of HFP + HF adduct, mg/kg <95.000 NFPA 2001, A.5.1.2.3

For Kidde Fluoro-K™, the MDC values for Class A and Class B are identical
to those of Novec 1230, and the Class C value differs slightly. This means
that in most cases, a system originally designed for Novec 1230 requires
no hardware changes if converted to using Fluoro-K™.

ADS Cylinder and Driver
1
3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid
ECS-500 Cylinder 2
https://news.3m.com/2022-12-20-3M-to-Exit-PFAS-Manufacturing-by-the-End-of-2025
Formatting edits added for effect.
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Table 2 illustrates how the MDC values for different manufacturers
vary.
Table 3 shows the impact the difference in MDC has on the required
amount of agent for specific hazard volumes in Class C applications.
Therefore when a Kidde delivery system with Novec 1230 discharges,
connect with the factory or your authorized Kidde Distributor for the
proper conversion kits and refill exclusively with Kidde Fluoro-K agent.
The takeaways from this discussion are that although the agents
tabulated above are classified as FK-5-1-12, their MDC values – which
form the basis for system design – are different, and that even small
differences in the MDC can have a significant impact on system design
and refill.
Why does Branding Matter?
As noted above, there are several suppliers of generic FK-5-1-12 agent,
each with their respective agency-listed MDCs. But this can create
problems. For instance, if a fire suppression company designed and
installed a system using unnamed or unbranded generic FK-5-1-12
agent from one agent supplier, the difficulty in tracking unnamed or
unbranded agent means there’s no guarantee the suppression company
will use the same agent supplier and agent with the same MDC when
there is a need to refill. This issue is exacerbated when the refilling is
done by a third party who is not the suppression OEM and therefore has
no prior knowledge of the MDC of the agent used in the original design.
Who then is responsible for ensuring that the accurate amount of agent
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corresponding to the installed product is refilled? With Kidde’s Fluoro-K,
there is no confusion, since initial system design is with Fluoro-K’s
established MDCs – meaning when refill is required, so long as the
agent is specified by name, the same amount of agent will be used
because the MDC has remained constant.
The conclusion is that the selection of known branded agent is critical to
ensure absence of confusion and the same level of protection after a
refilling operation.
Component & System Listings
While certain suppliers have received component listing and show
compliance with UL and FM standards for their agents, not all suppliers
appear to have obtained the system listing or approval with a particular
hardware set. In contrast, Kidde engineers specifically tested and
verified their new agent along with their hardware to secure a system
level listing with UL and approval by FM. Kidde stands behind the
performance of the Fluoro-K™ product because Kidde engineers have
put in the work to optimize performance with the ECS™, ECS-500™ and
ADS™ hardware platforms and software.
By the same token, Kidde won't stand behind an installed system that
was refilled with generic FK-5-1-12, because doing so not just introduces
unknown performance liabilities but also violates all agency listings and
voids any applicable warranty for the system.
The system listings for the Kidde ECS, ECS-500 and ADS delivery
platforms with Fluoro-K™ use the same hardware components as for the
legacy Novec 1230 offering. In some instances, new part numbers were
introduced to distinguish the product lines, but functionally all
components are the same. Therefore, designing, installing, testing,
commissioning, and maintaining systems remains familiar, and
designers, installers and service technicians find the transition from
Novec 1230 to Fluoro-K exceedingly simple. And given their well-known
reliability, Kidde’s delivery platforms and software continue to give
Kidde’s customers the peace of mind on which they have come to rely.
PFAS (or did you mean PFOS?)
Any discussion around fluoroketones lately tends to lead to
conversations about PFAS, so let’s look at what that is and how or if it
relates to the Fluoro-K™ product.
Per- & Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are widely used chemicals, the
components of which break down very slowly over time due to the
characteristic strength of their carbon-fluorine bond. It is this strength that
enables PFAS to be used in a broad range of industrial and consumer
products, including renewable energy applications, medical technology,
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semiconductors, cable coatings, building materials, fuel cell and Conclusions and Recommendations
lithium-ion battery technologies, paints, clothing, and personal care
items.
• Beware of market communications promising supply of
3M Novec 1230 after December 2024.
Depending on specific characteristics such as length of the carbon
chains and configurational specifics of the molecules, some PFAS
• Fluoro-K is a C6 compound not known to contain any
compounds have been found to be Persistent, Bio-accumulative, and
Persistent, Bio-accumulative, and Toxic (PBT) elements.
Toxic (PBT for short).

• The US EPA has stated, “We find that C6-perfluoroketone

When news articles use the term ‘PFAS,’ it appears that they often are
is acceptable because it reduces overall risk to public
referencing compounds such as Perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) or
health and the environment in the end use listed.”
Perfluoro-octane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which have long chains with
eight carbon atoms (and thus called C8 compounds), and which, as
• Fill new systems or refill discharged systems with equal
per the US EPA, are suspected to be PBT.
quantity of Fluoro-K agent as Novec 1230 for Class A and
Class B applications without any risk of hardware change
Fluoro-K™ (FK-5-1-12), on the other hand, has six carbon-atoms and is
or underachieved concentration.
a C6-perfluoroketone that readily vaporizes and breaks down in the
atmosphere within three days. It is highly insoluble in water. Its Ozone
• Transition any discharged Kidde system using Novec and
Depletion Potential is zero (0) and Global Warming Potential is less than
refill with Fluoro-K per our instructions to maintain system
one (<1), leading to our conclusion that FK-5-1-12 is not PBT and is
approval and listing.
safe for use in fire suppression applications.

• Expect and receive the same quality and level of support

This conclusion is corroborated by the US EPA3, which has made the
as for other Kidde products.
following statements in support of the use of FK-5-1-12 in fire
protection applications:

• “C6-perfluoroketone is acceptable as a substitute for

halon 1301.”

• “EPA has reviewed the potential environmental impacts

of this substitute and has concluded that, by comparison
to halon 1301 and other acceptable substitutes,
C6-perfluoroketone significantly reduces overall risk to
the environment. With no ozone-depletion potential, a
global warming potential value of less than 1, and an
atmospheric lifetime of less than three days,
C6-perfluoroketone provides an improvement over use
of halon 1301, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in fire protection. We find
that C6-perfluoroketone is acceptable because it
reduces overall risk to public health and the
environment in the end use listed.”

3
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/
2002/12/20/02-32130/protection-of-stratospheric-ozone-
notice-17-for-significant-new-alternatives-policy-program

Kidde Fire Systems

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Ashland, MA 01721 USA
+1 508.881.2000
kiddefiresystems.com
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