Controlled fire storms could be a greener way to clean up marine oil spills

FIRE whirls, also known as fire tornadoes and even fire devils, sound like something out of a medieval vision of hell. In fact, they are natural phenomena caused by hot air rising in a column during a large fire, such as a forest fire, and then swirling into a vortex as much as 30 metres high. Inside this vortex, wind speeds can reach 250km an hour and the temperature may rise beyond 1,000C.Fire whirls are sometimes started deliberately by researchers trying to discover how to extinguish them. But Michael Gollner of the University of Maryland and his colleagues have a different approach. They wonder if these elemental demons might be tamed and used for good'specifically, for clearing up oil spills at sea. Their research, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the answer might be 'yes'.In the right conditions, it is possible to create small fire whirls in a laboratory, which Dr Gollner's team did. The fuel for their whirls was heptane, a light, liquid hydrocarbon that is often part of accidental oil spills. Their whirl-generating chamber had, at its base, a pool...Continue reading
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