Chemical’s Ban Could Be Boon for Alternative : Environment: Pacific Scientific expects big profit from substitute for widely used but ozone-depleting fire suppressant Halon.

A Newport Beach company hopes to profit from the void left by the banning of environmentally harmful chemicals by tapping into a potential $60-million market opportunity.

Pacific Scientific Co. said Tuesday that it has developed a substance that replaces the fire suppressant Halon, which is no longer being manufactured under international agreement because it is believed to damage the Earth’s ozone layer.

The Newport Beach company said its Triodide fire suppressant has proven effective in tests, yet damages neither the ozone layer nor contributes to global warming.

“It does not stay in the atmosphere very long. It decomposes,” said Steve Breitzka, president of the company’s HTL/Kin-Tech division in Duarte that developed the chemical product.

Halon is a substance that reacts chemically with fire to extinguish flames. It is widely used in computer facilities, telephone switching rooms or anywhere else where conventional water sprinkling systems might be ineffective or cause extensive collateral damage.

But Halon is so damaging to the atmosphere that its manufacture was ended by the Clean Air Act of 1990 and by international agreement. It was no longer being made starting this year, Breitzka said.

About 10 manufacturers have stepped in to market Halon alternatives. But Breitzka said that he believes Triodide will catch on because it reacts the same as Halon to extinguish a fire and can be fitted into the same size tanks. Thus, users do not have to buy a lot of new equipment to accommodate the fire-suppressing chemical.

The product has also done well in testing by the military and in commercial applications. “But the testing has been so great that’s why we decided to release it,” he said. It is now for sale as prices that Breitzka said are comparable to Halon.

Pacific Scientific shares closed at $23.63, up 25 cents, in trading Tuesday on the Pacific Stock Exchange.