A facile sunflower pectin gel foam for liquid fuel fire suppression with ReaxFF characterisation on its char-enhancing ability

Chang Tian; Anthony Chun Yin Yuen; Jinlong Zhao; Timothy Bo Yuan Chen; Qian Chen; Ivan Miguel De Cachinho Cordeiro

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122888

A facile sunflower pectin gel foam for liquid fuel fire suppression with ReaxFF characterisation on its char-enhancing ability

Carbohydr Polym. 2025 Jan 15;348(Pt B):122888. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122888. Epub 2024 Oct 17.

Authors

Chang Tian¹, Anthony Chun Yin Yuen¹, Jinlong Zhao², Timothy Bo Yuan Chen³, Qian Chen³, Ivan Miguel De Cachinho Cordeiro⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
² School of Emergency Management & Safety Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: 15210567787@163.com.
³ Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

PMID: 39567126
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.122888

Abstract

A biomass fire suppression gel foam (FSGF) with outstanding thermal stability and fire resistance performance was synthesised to improve the flame retardancy of foam agents on liquid fuel fires. The foam comprehensive index, microstructure, thermal stability, fire resistance and extinguishing properties of the FSGF were benchmarked against aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). Subsequently, reactive forcefield (ReaxFF) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on the FSGF to study the thermokinetic properties. Based on the experimental results, a porosity layer was found on the external film of FSGF, which enhanced the thermal stability of the foam. The gelling mechanism of the foam is the formation of an O-Ca-O bond. Through MD simulations it was discovered that the remained calcium oxide/hydroxide species when deposited on fuel surfaces would promote char formation as they capture H/O atoms via dehydration. Alternatively, the foam showed better thermal stability than that of AFFF due to a lower weight loss rate and longer collapse time. The extinguishing performance tests demonstrated that the fire extinguishing time and resistance time of FSGF respectively are 72 s and 801 s, showing a significant potential to suppress the re-ignition of tank fires.

Keywords: Fire suppression; Gel foam; Liquid fuel fires; Molecular dynamics; ReaxFF; Thermal stability.