The Dangers of Paraffin Wax

The Dangers of Paraffin Wax
Paraffin wax is a petroleum by-product that produces the same chemicals as car exhaust and rocket fuel when burned. For Every Home products are made from soy based wax derived from hydrogenated soybean oil which makes them clean burning and safe. To understand more about the dangers of paraffin, read this article. It was published by NASA and discusses how paraffin wax could be used as rocket fuel. Is that something you want burning in YOUR home?
test firing a new rocket
Think about rockets of the future, and about the fuel they may use. You may think of nuclear propulsion, magnetic levitation, or hydrogen fuels, perhaps? How about candle wax? That probably wasn't on your list of the most likely choices in rocket fuels for the future. Research and testing, however, are showing that paraffin--the material used in common candles--has excellent potential for use as a rocket fuel. NASA scientists aren't proposing that anyone load a rocket core with thousands of birthday candles, though. It's a bit more complex than that.
One of the best things about paraffin-based rocket fuels is the safety factor. Look at a standard candle. By itself, sitting on the table, it isn't going to ignite very easily. If you throw it on the floor, it won't explode, and if you leave it out on the table, it won't give off dangerous gases. To ignite the candle, the oxidizer--what causes the candle to burn--has to be added to the fuel. Air must be added to the flame. Without both air and flame, there won't be any ignition.
Traditional solid-fuel rockets use chemical solids like perchlorate compounds for the oxidizers, and the fuel and oxidizer are mixed together before being packed into the rocket. The danger is that they need only be exposed to a spark to explode before they're supposed to. But, paraffin-based rockets could be fueled at the launch site since transporting fuel to the location wouldn't be the hazard it is now. That would save money. Rockets like the paraffin-based one that keep the fuel and the oxidizer separate until needed are called hybrids.
While paraffin is clearly safer than standard rockets, candles don't create burn with enough energy to fuel a rocket. The flame is small and gentle, and while it's certainly hot (which means there is energy present), it's not strong enough to send a rocket into flight.
Researchers from NASA's Ames Research Center and Stanford University developed a process to make paraffin burn faster than it has before. Faster burning materials release more energy. In the new design, the paraffin's oxidizer is pure oxygen gas, instead of our own air, which is only 21 percent oxygen. This creates a hotter flame. The extra feature, however, is to blow oxygen past the melted paraffin fast enough to make waves in the liquid paraffin. This choppy surface is like an ocean-it gives off a spray of paraffin droplets that burn even more rapidly, tripling the combustion rate of the fuel in comparison to traditional hybrid rocket fuels.
Another benefit of paraffin over traditional rocket fuels is its impact on nature. Environmentally speaking, paraffin is a very clean fuel. As it burns, the only gases left behind are water vapor and carbon dioxide, which are already part of our ecosystem. Solid rocket fuels produce aluminum oxide, hydrogen chloride, and other acidic chemical compounds. These substances linger in the environment, and when it rains, they run off into lakes and soils. This increased acidity can harm plants, animals…and humans.
a parafin core section from a rocketParaffin-fueled rockets are safer and cleaner, and they're also more controllable. Traditional solid-fuel rockets have one setting: on. Once they're ignited, there's no turning back, and no way to stop them. Paraffin rockets, however, can be equipped with a type of off switch. The flow of the oxidizing gas can be controlled, and that means the rocket can be shut down and restarted if needed, says Brian Cantwell, professor at Stanford University. Because they can be shut off after lit, they can also be used in conditions where energy requirements vary. "One design concept being considered is a new hybrid booster rocket that is able to fly back to the launch site for recharging," says Cantwell.
testing of a new rocket engineTesting at NASA's Ames Research Center in California has already shown encouraging results. Over 40 test fires, which last about 10 seconds each, have shown that a fast-burning, low-cost, paraffin-based fuel is a realistic alternative to the fuels currently used. A new combustion chamber is being built with special windows that will allow researchers with optical instruments to observe the combustion process as it's taking place. Researchers expect to make another 100 tests over the course of this project. Actually using paraffin-based rockets to send the Space Shuttle or other space vehicles into space is still a long way off, researchers say, and the first uses of the new hybrid rocket would be more likely on smaller vehicles with less-precious cargo aboard.
Courtesy of NASA's Aeronautics Mission Directorate
Published by NASAexplores: October 23, 2003