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Ethanol

Re: Ethanol and what foam to use
Alcohol Resistant AFFF is probably the best best bet. Since most gasoline now has 10% ethanol in it, regular AFFF is less successful than it used to be. As far as E-85 or or pure ethanol, AR-AFFF is all that might work. There is a large study being released by IAFC on this subject. From IAFC.org:

"The results indicate that AR-AFFF was the only foam agent that successfully passed the UL162 tests against
both E10 and E85/95. While some of the other foams may have some degree of effectiveness, depending on
the situation and their application rate, the tests confirmed that AR-AFFF will be the most effective foam for
fires or spills involving ethanol-blended fuels."
Synthetic alcohol resistant AFFF's are the ONLY foams found by IAFC to extinguish ethanol fires. Protein, flouroprotein, F-500 and other emulsifiers could not suppress the fires.

The question about percentage used is a good one, I'm a trainer and a lot of people ask this questions. With a 3%-6% AR/AFFF, the numbers indicate concentration to be used on each type of fire. Keep in mind that these numbers indicate the gallons of foam concentrate that are used per 100 gallons of water. (3 gal foam to 97 gallons water, etc.)

With a standard hydrocarbon fire involving diesel, gasoline or gas containing less than 10% alcohol or ethanol, you use the lower 3% ratio. For fires involving alcohol fuels like ethanol, methanol or gasohol (anything over 10% alcohol content) you need to use a stronger mixture of 6 gallons of foam per 94 gallons of water.

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