ISS Experiments Discover Cool Burning Flames That Could Make Better Engines For Cars

We all desire more efficient and cleaner engines for our cars and the latest discovery, made in space at the ISS (International Space Station) has indicated that we're likely to advance a step further in the direction. A group of researchers and engineers have discovered a special type of cool burning flames; which they didn't think would ever exist. However the discovery has made Prof. Forman Williams and team from University of California, San Diego very optimistic about its potential use in making better engines for our cars and buses.


The cool flames were discovered during a series of experiments being conducted at the ISS. Researchers ignited droplets of heptane and the first observations led to conclusion that the flames had extinguished on their own, a behavior similar to that on Earth. However, the special sensors keeping check on the reactions revealed that the heptane fuel was burning - producing cool flames which were not visible to eyes. The team now believes that these invisible cool flames are a result of the chemical interactions that do not have enough time to spread around the fuel droplets.


The next challenge for the researchers is to figure out the right mix of fuels to create these cool flames under Earth's gravity. NASA has promised to conduct a series of experiments for over a year starting winter, under the name 'Cool Flame Investigation'. We hope that something great comes out of these experiments. We urge all our readers to save fuel in all the possible ways, for obvious reasons.

Read more about the experiment and the setup used on the source link below.

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