Why is carbon dioxide used in fire extinguishers?

Question

it's for school homework due on Wednesday. Plz help

Answer 1

Well everyone has the basic concept right. CO2 is a gas that does not support combustion and will displace the Oxygen removing one of the necessary components to have a fire.

However, they really didn't tell you WHY WE USE CO2 and not Nitrogen or Argon or any number of other inert agents that would also extinguish fire.

There are several reasons really...

CO2 is used because it can be kept as a liquid agent at room temperatures in a high pressure container. At 70 degrees, the pressure will be about 750 psi. (Pretty Stable really.) If we used liquid nitrogen or argon the pressure would be immense and couldn't safely be kept in a portable container.

Plus as a cryogenic gas, Nitrogen or Argon would be TOO cold to be safe to use, while liquid CO2 is only about 40 below zero Fahrenheit.

CO2 also does not harm electronic equipment and is safe to use on energized electrical equipment.

CO2 is also a faily inexpensive gas to recharge.

For more information on CO2 as well as other types of fire extinguishers visit...
http://www.fireextinguisher.com

Answer 2

A Carbon Dioxide Extinguisher

Answer 3

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There are several ways to extinguish a fire and you'll often see a fire triangle or a fire tetrahedron when learning how to extinguish fires. The fire tetrahedron consists of: Heat Oxygen Fuel The chemical reaction is at the center of the tetrahedron The idea is that all of those parts need to be together in order for the fire to continue burning. If you remove one part, the fire stops burning. The carbon dioxide fire extinguisher works by DISPLACING OXYGEN. Without oxygen, the fire can no longer burn. Carbon dioxide is also a bit more dense than air, so it's a good gas for getting the oxygen away from the fire to make it stop burning.

Answer 4

Carbon dioxide is an inert gas that does not promote a fire, it is actually one of the byproducts of fire. Carbon dioxide envelopes the area of the fire when released from the fire extinguisher, displacing the oxygen. Perhaps you have heard of the fire triange (Oxygen, Fuel, Heat) or the fire tetrahedron (Oxygen, Fuel, Heat, and Continuous Chemical Reaction). Remove any of the components in either model, and the fire will go out. In the case of a CO2 fire extinguisher, the fire is put out by replacing the fires oxygen with CO2. Enveloped in an atmosphere of only CO2, the fire cannot continue and goes out. To a lesser extend, the fact that the CO2 is depressurizing, therefore becoming cold, removes heat from the fire. Hope this helps

Answer 5

CO2 is used in fire extinguishers because it disrupts the fire triangle of Fuel, Heat and Oxygen or any oxidizer.

CO2 will not burn and will extinguish fire for 3 major reasons.

Carbon dioxide does this nicely at cheap cost, being readily available, and has a cooling effect which lowers the temperature necessary to sustain combustion, and mostly because of its higher density than that of air, it covers the item burning with a blanket of non-combustible layer of CO2, displacing Oxygen. So you see, CO2 is effective in disrupting the Fire Triangle.

Answer 6

The fire triangle requires #1, fuel (like wood or gasoline), # 2, Heat ( like a match or a spark or sunlight or natural heat from decomposition or a similar source) # 3, Oxygen. Carbon dioxide is "like" the opposite of oxygen in that it will extinguish fire rather than fuel it like oxygen does.

Fire creates CO2 from the burning process using fule, heat and oxygen. By releasing large amounts of Carbon Dioxide ( CO2) near a fire you are eliminating the oxygen concentration and then the fire goes out like magic. You can see this by covering the top of a candle in a glass. The O ( oxygen ) gets used up, CO2 levels increase and the fire goes out like magic.

Answer 7

Because fire requires oxygen to be fire. If you smother it with carbon dioxide the fire will go out. Of course if you're in a room with a lot of carbon dioxide you'll go out also.

Fire needs... heat, fuel and oxygen. Deprived of any of these you do not have fire

Answer 8

carbon dioxide used in fire extinguisher is because that the carbon dioxide or CO2 has higher mass than the oxygen which is present in the atmosphere without oxygen the fire cannot exist so therefore when you open it, since the CO2 has higher mass, or density you can say, the CO2 gases expanded and it serves as a blanket that cover down the O2 which is oxygen. without oxygen, fire is out.

Answer 9

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RE:
Why is carbon dioxide used in fire extinguishers?
it's for school homework due on Wednesday. Plz help

Answer 10

Displacing oxygen is removing one of the four elements needed for fire to happen, Heat, Fuel, oxygen and chemical reaction.