In space, no one can hear you scream, but if the circumstances are correct, you can burn fuel without making a flame. Still, no one will hear you shouting “Eureka” until you establish a connection with other lifeforms.
According to Jacobs School of Engineering, a group of researchers on the International Space Station just discovered a new way of cool burning flames that they didn’t think could exist. Normally, we wouldn’t really care about it, but they said this could make combustion engines more efficient.
The team led by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Forman Williams ignited large droplets of heptane fuel in a controlled environment and after they appeared to extinguish themselves, sensors showed they were burning flameless at a lower temperature.
These cool flames seem to be the result of elementary chemical reactions that don’t have the time to develop around burning fuel droplets, like it happens on Earth. This can be explained by buoyancy, which limits the amount of time gases can stay in the high temperature zone around the droplets, but in space, where gravity doesn’t affect them, things go the other way around.
The cool-burning flames occurred in different environments, including Earth atmosphere-like and atmospheres diluted with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and helium.
Now, the scientists want to get the right mix of fuels to generate the same combustion on Earth, with a special project called the Cool Flame Investigation (such name) starting next winter. If they manage, combustion engines can be improved by developing a homogenous-charge compression ignition, which can burn fuel at lower temperatures and emit fewer pollutants.
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