Iron burning

Iron dust burning. Everything burns. Given the right environment, all matter can burn by adding oxygen, but finding the right mix  and generating enough heat makes some materials combust more easily than others. Researchers interested in knowing more about a type of fire called discrete burning used ESA’s microgravity experiment facilities to investigate.

Burning iron dust in experiments on zero-g aircraft and rocket flights allowed for the iron particles to float and ignite discreetly. High-speed cameras captured the spectacle and allowed the researchers to better understand the phenomenon, resulting in computer models that showed the ideal conditions to burn the fuel on Earth.

With the new understanding made possible from microgravity research it became possible to build efficient and practical iron-burning furnaces.

The advantage of burning iron is down to chemistry. Essentially,  burning fuel is the process of transforming a material by adding oxygen atoms. his is why carbon-based fuel produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when two oxygen atoms are added to the carbon-based fuel such as wood, coal or oil. With iron, the leftover product after combustion is iron oxide, more commonly known as rust. No carbon dioxide is produced, and the rusty iron can be easily collected as it doesn’t form a gas – burning iron emits no noxious gases at all.

Iron rust can even be processed to remove the oxygen and return it as iron using hydrogen. By using electricity from sustainable sources, iron as a fuel can become a circular, endlessly recyclable energy storage.

A demonstration plant is already up and running in Budel, near Eindhoven, The Netherlands, using iron as its fuel source this generator can produce 1 MW of steam in a unit that stands in a warehouse. Scaled up such an iron power plant could produce much more energy.

Multiple start-ups are already pursuing this carbon-free fuel, to power factories and industrial processes.