Picture this. Fire has engulfed an apartment of a high rise tower. Inside is a family screaming for help but a veil of fire separates them from the posse of fire-fighters who are trying their very best to extinguish the raging fire with the help of water, foam and powder. But the fire doesn’t seem to relent. Gallons of water and tonnes of foam have been used so far but no avail. Just then a fireman, loaded with special equipment, enters the scene; taking everyone by surprise. He points a wand at the flame, and shoots a beam of electricity that opens a path through the flame. The other firemen now easily reach the stranded family and rescue them to safety.
Unbelievable? Not if a team of Harvard researchers have their way. These masterminds are working towards inventing a way to snuff out flames not with a physical suppressant but with a blast of electric current. This extraordinary discovery of extinguishing fire with electricity was discussed at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a few days ago.
The confidence of Ludovico Cademartiri, Ph.D., and his colleagues in the group of George M. Whitesides, Ph.D., at Harvard University, is based on a 200-year-old observation that electrical charges can bend, twist, turn, flicker, and even snuff the flames. Banking upon this fact the researchers have developed an electrical wave blaster that could replace the traditional hose pipes and more modern foam as a means to extinguish fire. The announcement heralds a revolution in fire-fighting technology and promises to make the lives of fire-fighters little less difficult.
“Controlling fires is an enormously difficult challenge,” said Cademartiri, who reported on the research. “Our research has shown that by applying large electric fields we can suppress flames very rapidly.”
According to the scientists, the new technology will help bring fire under control without the use of standard materials thus saving water and the environment at the same time. In the experiments they carried out, the scientists connected a powerful electrical amplifier to a wand-like probe and used the device to shoot beams of electricity at an open flame more than a foot high. Almost instantly, to the fascination of the researchers, the flame was snuffed out entirely not just once abut over and over again.
The reasoning behind this happening is complex, to the extent that it still to be well understood, claim the scientists. Though there are several effects happening simultaneously, what possibly seems to be happening is that the carbon particles generated during combustion are easily charged, and once charged they respond to electric fields in strange ways that affect the stability of the flame. Shake that stability hard enough, and the flame collapses.
What can be an added boon for the fighters is the fact that the wave blaster requires one-tenth of the wattage required to power a car stereo, which is 600 watts to be precise, to tame the fire. This makes it possible for fire-fighters to carry the device as a backpack making their job more efficient and easy.
This futuristic electrical wave blaster with a wand can be used in place of sprinklers in buildings or ships. It can be of immense use in enclosed quarters, such as armored trucks, planes, and submarines. However, the system may not be useful in case of large fires like in the forests, notes Cademartiri. However, the blaster’s ability to control the heat and distribution of flames can improve the efficiency of a wide variety of technologies that involve controlled combustion such as automobile engines, power plants and welding equipments.
