The Solberg Company, the world’s foremost innovator of firefighting foam concentrates and systems hardware announced today the company was named a winner of the 2014 EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award.
Awards are presented in five categories: Academic, Small Business, Greener Synthetic pathways, Greener Reaction Conditions and Designing Greener Chemicals. Solberg was honored with the category award for Designing Greener Chemicals for its development and commercialization of RE-HEALING™ Foam.
RE-HEALING foam concentrates from SOLBERG are an innovative environmentally sustainable fluorosurfactant and fluoropolymer-free firefighting foam used to effectively extinguish Class B fuels with no environmental concerns regarding persistence, bioaccumulation or toxic breakdown.
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards promote the environmental and economic benefits of developing and using novel green chemistry. These prestigious annual awards recognize chemical technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use.
EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention sponsors the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards in partnership with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute® and other members of the chemical community including industry, trade associations, academic institutions, and other government agencies.
"Firefighting foams suppress combustion by smothering burning fuels and cooling fires. For years, these foams have used long-chain fluorinated surfactants as the ‘active ingredient’," stated Solberg’s General Manager Steve Hansen.
"But they have significant toxicity concerns, thus Solberg developed RE-HEALING foam specifically to address the use of fluorinated surfactants. RE-HEALING foam replaces halogenated materials with a blend of non- fluorinated surfactants and complex carbohydrates."
Over the 19 years of the awards program, EPA has presented awards to 98 winners. From its inception in 1996, until 2014, EPA has received nearly 1,500 nominations. By recognizing groundbreaking scientific solutions to real-world environmental problems, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge has significantly reduced the hazards associated with designing, manufacturing, and using chemicals. An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute formally judged submissions from among scores of nominated technologies and made recommendations to EPA for the 2014 winners.
"We are truly honored to receive this award," continued Hansen. "We are profoundly committed to developing high performing foam products that have an environment-friendly profile to protect our fragile environment. The Green Chemistry Award confirms that next generation product that does not contain halogenated materials can be commercialized and more importantly will have an impact on firefighting foam something the fire protection industry has not experienced in fifty years since in the introduction of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF)."
"Solberg now offers the world’s only true fluorine-free foam concentrate that is multiagency product certified (UL, FM, EN, ICAO). RE-HEALING foam is a very effective firefighting foam concentrate for flame knockdown, fire control, extinguishment and burn-back resistance" said Dave Pelton, Vice President Global Marketing for Solberg. "Control, extinguishing time, and burn-back resistance is paramount to the safety of firefighters everywhere, and RE-HEALING foam has shown excellent performance in each category."
Solberg, the firefighting foam products division of Amerex Corporation is based in Green Bay, Wisconsin with operations in Bergen, Norway and Sydney, Australia. The company has been involved with the manufacture of firefighting foams since the mid-1970s. In addition to the RE-HEALNG foam product line, Solberg manufactures a complete range of C6 compliant AFFF/AR-AFFF foam concentrates, Class A and High-Expansion foam concentrates including foam systems hardware. Solberg’s unique technology is preferred by customers in the aviation, chemical, fire service, mining, oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, solvent and coatings and utility markets.
