Fire has always been a Faustian bargain. As humanity harnessed it for heat and energy our civilization blossomed and prospered. Fire has a dirty price, though. Soot, ash, unburned products, airborne toxins fill the air as the fire burns—in short, pollution is created. Our love affair with hydrocarbon-fueled combustion engines has made the downside of fire even more onerous. The implications of newer problems such as smog, acid rain, and global warming are still not fully understood.

What makes fire so polluting is our lack of control over how fuel and oxygen mix together. Unburned fuel is released into the air as polluting hydrocarbons, and incomplete burning creates environmentally hazardous pollutants.

That's why aerospace engineer Cyrus K. Madnia and his team at the State University of New York at Buffalo are creating models that show how a flame is created and how its reactants and products whirl together in a dance of turbulent flows. Using these studies, the team hopes to help other researchers and engineers harness fire more efficiently and burn fuels more cleanly.

Access Online | Posted 7-17-2001