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Robin | Mechanical Engineer
Robin | Mechanical Engineer

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Reclaiming a Fire-Suppression Gas Nobody Manufactures Anymore

Reclaiming Halon is a materials-separation problem before it's a pumping problem. Halon-1211 and Halon-1301 haven't been produced for new manufacture in decades, so the entire global supply is a fixed pool that has to be recovered, purified, and recharged rather than replenished -- and the hard part isn't extracting the gas from a cylinder, it's separating Halon vapor from the non-condensable gases that inevitably mix in during storage and handling, which filtration alone cannot do.

Neometrix's Halon Reclamation & Refilling Facility solves the separation problem with cascaded refrigeration: cooling recovered gas down to -70°C for Halon-1301 or -20°C for Halon-1211 condenses the Halon out as liquid while true non-condensables stay in vapor form and vent separately. Three-stage filtration (acid removal, moisture trap with indicator, particulate filter) handles solid and acidic contamination upstream of that step. Together, the two stages push mass-balance recovery efficiency above 98%.

Pumping strategy adapts to the source: dual air-driven Haskel pumps run in gravity, pump-only, or vacuum-assist mode depending on how much residual pressure is left in the vessel being recovered, sustaining a rated 200 tons/year at 1.5 kg/min across 280 working days without needing a fixed pumping profile that's only efficient under one starting condition.

Recovery hardware alone doesn't make reclaimed Halon usable -- certification does. An onboard laboratory suite (GC, mass spectrometry, Karl Fischer titration, residue testing, boiling-point analysis) verifies every batch against ISO 7201 / ASTM D7673 before recharge, on the same skid rather than as an offsite step. A trailer-mounted configuration extends the same closed loop to remote or emergency sites within 48 hours, avoiding the logistics risk of shipping pressurized Halon cylinders cross-country to a fixed facility.

Full writeup: https://neometrixgroup.com/products/halon-reclaimation-and-refiling-facility

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