Kiilto and PPO-Elektroniikka Oy have combined their expertise and developed an environmentally friendly fire-fighting chemical for extinguishing forest fires and wildfires. Source: Timberbiz
Kiilto’s 100-year expertise in the chemical industry and PPO-Elektroniikka’s experience in fire extinguishing technology have made it possible to develop this unique solution. Kiilto is responsible for the manufacture of the product and PPO-Elektroniikka for its marketing and the development of the spreading technique.
“Forest fires are the biggest contributor to fine particulate emissions in the world, and the situation is getting worse with global warming,” Timo Ohtonen, Managing Director of PPO-Electronics said.
“Using our green solution, we can quickly and cost-effectively stop forest fires with our environmentally safe extinguishing chemical.”
PPO Elektroniikka already tested a similar method in the 1990s. However, the situation was different at that time: forest fires were not a particularly serious problem, so demand did not match supply. It has been a long journey to the 2020s, and forest fires have now become a huge global threat.
Forest fires and wildfires cause damage worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally. Carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires amounted to approximately 7.8 billion tonnes in 2019.
Fires that are difficult to control are occurring more and more often around the world due to increasing heat, drought and human activity. In 2019–2020, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Indonesia and the United States have had the highest number of forest fires and wildfires.
In Finland, the problem is still small compared with the global situation. The average number of forest fires in Finland is 2000 per year. The effects of global warming are gradually becoming apparent in Finland as well.
“At Kiilto, we have seen a clear need from our customer base for the development of environmentally friendly fire retardants,” Juha Rinne, Customer Service Manager of Kiilto said.
“When Timo [Ohtonen] contacted Kiilto, we already had some product ideas and with some refining, we came up with a suitable solution for stopping forest fires from spreading. PPO-Elektroniikka has fire protection expertise and good connections with operators in the field, so it was natural for us to start working with them.”
