ESA title
Science & Exploration

Caring for the environment

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ESA / Science & Exploration / Human and Robotic Exploration / Research

Studies in weightlessness can reveal properties that are important for energy production and environment protection. This can provide, for instance, a better understanding of combustion processes, flows in porous media and the behaviour of dust particles in the atmosphere.

Cleaner or more efficient combustion

The results are expected to lead to low-pollution and higher efficiency combustion (cleaner or more efficient combustion)in powerplants and for aircraft and car engines, improved oil recovery methods, and innovative air and water purification techniques. Increased knowledge of life-support technologies can be used to make the nutrition cycle safer.

The classical example of burning a candle in space shows that the well-known shape of a flame is determined by the convection surrounding and mixing the burning components. This convection is driven by the force of gravity: in space a candle flame is spherical and almost transparent-blue due to the absence of soot production. This opens up ways of studying the combustion process in high detail to determine specific parameters that can be used in the numerical modelling and optimising of combustion on Earth. Interested parties are designers of electrical powerplants who want to improve effieciency or developers of car engines who want to reduce environmental loads.