PFAS and clean agent suppression: what data centre operators should do in 2026

Data centre operators standardised on FK-5-1-12 — best known under its former 3M brand name, Novec 1230 — because it was the clean agent with the strongest environmental story: very low global warming potential, zero ozone depletion, safe for occupied spaces. In 2026 that story has become more complicated. The chemistry is a PFAS, regulators on both sides of the Channel are moving, and the company that made the brand famous has left the market entirely.

3M’s exit is complete

3M announced in December 2022 that it would stop manufacturing PFAS by the end of 2025, and it has since confirmed that its PFAS production — including Novec 1230 — has ended. That is not the supply cliff it sounds like. FK-5-1-12 is a generic compound, and several manufacturers continue to produce it with UL-listed and FM-approved system hardware, including Kidde’s Fluoro-K and Fike’s SF 1230. Existing systems remain lawful, supported and rechargeable. But the original manufacturer walking away from its own flagship agent is a fair signal of the direction of travel, and it concentrates the recharge supply chain into fewer hands.

Where the regulation actually stands

The EU’s proposed universal PFAS restriction under REACH passed a milestone on 26 March 2026, when the European Chemicals Agency published the final opinion of its Risk Assessment Committee and the draft opinion of its Socio-Economic Analysis Committee. The consultation on the SEAC draft closed on 25 May 2026, and the combined opinions are expected to reach the European Commission by the end of 2026, after which the Commission drafts the legal text. Notably, SEAC concluded that a blanket ban is likely not proportionate and favours use-specific derogations — and it is precisely there, in the derogations, that the future of fluorinated suppression agents will be settled.

The UK is running its own process under UK REACH. The Health and Safety Executive’s consultation on restricting PFAS in firefighting foams closed on 18 February 2026, with the restriction expected to enter UK law in late 2026 or early 2027 and transition periods of around five years for most uses and ten years for the highest-hazard sites. That restriction covers foams, not gaseous agents — but it adopts the same broad PFAS definition, based on fully fluorinated carbon atoms, that catches FK-5-1-12. Nobody watching the sequence should assume gaseous agents stay out of scope indefinitely.

HFC-based agents face a separate squeeze. HFC-227ea, sold as FM-200, is a potent greenhouse gas caught by the GB F-gas phasedown, which keeps pushing recharge costs and lead times in one direction: up.

What this means for operators

The wrong response is panic replacement. FK-5-1-12 systems are compliant today, and any future restriction would arrive with transition periods measured in years, not months. The right response is stewardship — the discipline the industry learned with halon: know exactly what you hold, know what a recharge would cost and where it would come from, and know what you would specify if the calculation changed.

A stewardship checklist

• Inventory every gaseous suppression system across your estate: agent, quantity held, manufacturer, installation date and service history.
• Confirm your recharge supply chain in writing — which agent brand, from which supplier, at what lead time and price basis.
• Keep room integrity testing current; a leaking enclosure wastes agent you may not want to buy twice, and an enclosure that cannot hold concentration fails the system regardless of the agent inside.
• For new builds and refurbishments, run the comparison honestly: generic FK-5-1-12, inert gas systems such as IG-541 and IG-55 (no PFAS content and no phasedown exposure, but more cylinders and floor space), water mist and oxygen reduction all have a legitimate case depending on the room.
• Diarise the end of 2026: the ECHA opinions landing with the European Commission will show whether fire suppression secures a durable derogation, and any UK follow-through will take its cue from the same evidence base.

Gemini AMPM designs, installs and maintains gas suppression systems for data centres and critical infrastructure, and we are agent-neutral: the right answer depends on the room, the risk and the recharge economics, not on whichever cylinder is in stock. If your suppression estate needs a stewardship review before the regulatory picture hardens, we can benchmark it hall by hall.