OxyReduct

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OxyReduct is a unique fire prevention system which, unlike traditional reactive gas suppression systems, actually prevents the breakout of a fire in an area before it has even had a chance to start. OxyReduct achieves this by creating and constantly regulating a reduced-oxygen fireproof atmosphere that can still be worked within. OxyReduct is the ideal system to be installed inside our media storage vaults - the Durasteel walls of our vaults keep a fire on the outside out, and the OxyReduct system prevents any fire from igniting inside the vaults, creating a completely fireproof environment.

» Jump straight to How OxyReduct Works

The Basics Of Fire

In order for any fire to ignite and burn, three essential elements are required - heat, fuel and oxygen. Collectively, these are know as the 'fire triangle' or 'combustion triangle' and fire can naturally occur when these three elements are combined at the right mixture. Removing any single one of these three elements prevents a fire from occurring or stops it from continuing to burn.

Without the required amount of heat, a fire can not ignite and continue to burn. Heat can be reduced or removed traditionally through the application of water, or other cooling substances. Once enough heat has been removed from a fire reaction, the fire will stop. This is known as suppression of the activation energy or 'cooling down'.

Without fuel, a fire will stop. Different fuels require different levels of oxygen in the air in order to ignite and burn. The fuel element of a fire will either be removed naturally, once all the fuel has been consumed by the fire, or can be physically or chemically removed manually. This is known as suppression of fuel.

Finally, a fire requires oxygen, or a similar oxidising agent, in order to ignite and continue to burn. The air that we breathe every day at ground level typically contains just under 21% oxygen. Different fuels require differing amounts of oxygen in the air in order for them to burn. By decreasing the concentration of oxygen in the air, the fire combustion process slows until eventually there is not enough oxygen in the air for the fire to continue burning. This is known as suppression of the oxidiser or 'choking'.

Fire Element	Removal Technique	Removal Method	Removal Options	Resulting Damage
Heat	Suppression of the activation energy (also known as cooling down)	Application of water or other cooling substances	Sprinkler systems or fire brigade	Severe water damage
Fuel	Suppression of the fuel	Naturally burns out or can be physically or chemically removed
Oxygen	Suppression of the oxidiser (also known as choking)	Reduction of oxygen level in the air	Gas suppression systems	Dust in atmosphere and downtime from electrical power off

How OxyReduct Works

OxyReduct works by creating and constantly regulating a reduced-oxygen environment within which fires cannot ignite and burn. The system operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, constantly monitoring the oxygen levels within the controlled environment and making adjustments accordingly, requiring no manual intervention. As OxyReduct is not a reactive system, like traditional gas suppression and sprinkler systems which only activate once a fire has actually started, there is no resulting damage to any items contained within the area and no electrical power downtime whilst the source of the fire is investigated. This can be a huge issue in environments that contain items such as computer servers which are water damageable, can be damaged by dust in the atmosphere stimulated by the activation of a gas suppression system and also rely on electrical power in order to operate.

Common fuels will ignite and burn in the following oxygen level atmospheres:

Material	Oxygen Level In Atmosphere Required For Ignition
Circuit Board	17%
Cable	16%
ABS Plastic	16%
Paper	14.3%

In order for an area to be protected against a fire, the OxyReduct system creates and maintains an oxygen-reduced atmosphere of around 0.75% below the ignition level of the materials listed above being stored within the area, preventing the fuels from igniting. This is done by taking air from the surrounding area and passing it in to an air compressor. The compressed air is then fed into a nitrogen generator, where the oxygen molecules are filtered out, before passing the resulting nitrogen through a nitrogen induction pipe into the protected area. This increased amount of nitrogen in the protected area reduces the relative amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. Oxygen sensors in the protected area constantly monitor the level of oxygen in the air and report this back to the OxyReduct control unit in order to control the production and flow of nitrogen into the area and maintain it at the required level.

Is It Safe?

An OxyReduct protected area is completely safe to enter and work in. The equivalent oxygen levels on an airplane or up a high mountain are typically around 16%, and no effects will be experienced at all down to around 15%. At 12%, some temporary fatigue may be experienced during prolonged exposures. However, professional athletes frequently train in special oxygen environments, known as altitude training and hypoxic training, that simulate high altitude training with oxygen concentration levels down to as low as 10% in order to improve performance.

Oxygen Concentration Level In Air	Symptoms
20.9%	None - normal oxygen level in air
15%	No effect on health
12%	Fatigue and impaired judgment
10%	Dizziness and shortness of breath
7%	Stupor sets in
5%	Minimum oxygen level that supports life
2-3%	Death within 1 minute

An OxyReduct protected area with an oxygen concentration level of 15% can be safely inhabited for up to 6 continuous hours, after which a 30 minute break should be taken before returning into the area. All OxyReduct systems are fitted with at least 2 oxygen sensors within a protected area, which constantly monitor the level of oxygen in the atmosphere. If the oxygen level hits either the upper limit (just below fuel ignition level) or lower safe limit, an alarm will sound to alert people to this. OxyReduct will automatically shut down when the lower safe limit oxygen level is detected - the oxygen level of an OxyReduct protected area can never drop below a safe level.

The Benefits Of Using OxyReduct

OxyReduct is a true fire prevention system as opposed to traditional reactive fire systems. It offers the ultimate internal fire protection of data and goods, working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It causes no 'wet damage' to the items within the protected area that a water sprinkler system would. It requires no power shutdown whilst the source of a fire is investigated and does not need refilling as gas suppression systems do once activated. The system is completely self-controlled, providing system status, performance and room integrity details on the OxyReduct console screen.

The Proof

Over the past 10 years, OxyReduct has been installed in over 300 facilities worldwide, providing fire protection for IT server rooms, warehouses, communication rooms, switch rooms, UPS rooms, archive storage facilities, museums, plant rooms and cold storage facilities of up to 100,000m³ in size, none of which have ever experienced a fire within their OxyReduct protected zones. Because the OxyReduct system is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, preventing a fire from occurring, it becomes a 'background' element to a working environment, and is therefore difficult to prove that the system is actually working because a fire cannot start in the first place. However, a perfect example of how OxyReduct prevented a fire occurring happened in a model railway warehouse where an automatic pallet feeder became stuck due to a pallet being misaligned. The motor on the pallet feeder kept continuously trying to push the pallet on to the racking without success, causing the motor to overheat. Pyrolysis (the chemical decomposition of condensed substances by heating that occurs spontaneously at high temperatures) started to occur, but due to the area being protected by OxyReduct, there was no further chain reaction due to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere and therefore a fire could not ignite. Had a traditional gas suppression or sprinkler system been installed, the motor would have likely ignited and activated the systems, causing mass water damage to the goods being stored, as well as the initial fire damage, followed by significant resulting costs of the warehouse being unusable for a period of time.

OxyReduct is a registered trademark of Wagner Group GmbH.