Adam Frank - Why Oxygen Isn’t Needed To Make Things Burn

Adam Frank - Why Oxygen Isn’t Needed To Make Things Burn

Oxygen isn't strictly necessary for combustion, but it is ideal. Any advanced (alien) civilization probably uses oxygen to burn things.

Key Takeaways

• Would combustion always be a potential energy source on any planet capable of incubating a technological civilization? That simple question has led to an examination of an essential chemical process.
• Combustion reactions transfer electrons from a fuel to an oxidizer. But there are a number of elements capable of being the oxidizer. So does our hypothetical planet really need oxygen itself?
• Oxygen is indeed the perfect element for carrying out combustion, and for a very good reason.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The following in foecast is a presentationof the XOON Broadcast Network, XOON TV
Channel and Roma McConnell Media Company broadcastin from Canada to the World and beyond.
Why oxygen isn't needed to make thingsburn. The best thing about science

(00:23):
is that sometimes you think you areworking toward one end, but then the
work takes you in an entirely differentdirection. That's the experience I had this
week while working on a project that'ssupposed to be about asking which planets might
develop technological civilizations. In the processof asking that question, however, I
ended up taking a large and fascinatingdetour into the chemistry of combustion. Let

(00:48):
me explain the power of oxidizers.What's in a word. My collaborator Amadeo
Balby, and I have been thinkingabout the kinds of environment a planet must
have an order to give a young, intelligent species the chance to eventually develop
advanced technologies. For example, whatkinds of energy sources must be lying around

(01:10):
geothermal wind tides in order for thespecies to create industry. As we began
laying out the possibilities, another questionpopped up. Would combustion burning stuff always
be a potential energy source. Thatwas the question that led me down the
chemical rabbit hole. Now let's getsomething clear from the start. I suck

(01:34):
at chemistry. I hated it inhigh school and I failed at the first
time I took it in college.But over the last decade, as I
have gotten more into astrobiology and planetaryscience, I have become fascinated with chemistry's
perspective on science because I am sobad at it. Though I always have
to start from square one when Ineed to learn anything about chemistry. I

(01:59):
really did not know what combustion wasother than it involves oxygen and you know,
fire. But to answer our question, I really needed to zoom in
on the deeper chemical details of combustion. For example, other planets might not
have oxygen rich atmospheres. Earth didnot for its first few billion years.

(02:20):
Would combustion be possible on one ofthose worlds? Here is what I found.
Combustion, by definition, involves afuel and an oxidizer. Combustion reactions
rapidly transfer electrons from the fuel tothe oxidizer. The reactions are exothermic,
which means that they release energy,a lot of it. In these cases,

(02:43):
sometimes you may need to add alittle energy to get combustion going,
like you do when you light amatch. But once the combustion reactions start,
they will keep going until the fuelor the oxidizer runs out. So
based on all this, you wouldbe more than justified in thinking hell,
yeah, combustion needs oxygen. Notso fast. It turns out that other

(03:07):
stuff can act as an oxidizer too. The oxidizer's main job is just to
accept electrons from the fuel. Totake one example, flooring is great at
that task. In fact, flooringis even better at accepting electrons than oxygen.
Is That means flow urine is abetter oxidizer than oxygen, which just

(03:29):
makes you want to yell at thechemist who came up with the terminology in
the first place. Oxygen is chemistry'sbest building block anyway. Based on these
facts, if you want to drivesome really powerful combustion reactions, you might
choose flooring over oxygen. The folkswho make rocket engines thought along these exact

(03:49):
lines. Back in the nineteen fifties. They put considerable effort into testing rockets
that used hydrogen for fuel and fluoringas the oxidant. Everything works really well.
Indeed, it worked too well.Flooring was so good at its job
that it burned everything, including themetal making up the engines. As John

(04:10):
D. Clark explained in his bookIgnition, An Informal History of Liquid Rocket
Propellants. For instance, if theflooring gas is allowed to flow rapidly out
of an orifice or a valve,or if it touches a spot of grease
or something like that, the metalis just as likely as not to ignite,
and a florin aluminum fire is somethingto see from a distance as an

(04:33):
additional kicker. Flooring does not justcombust, it reacts in all kinds of
ways with just about everything except thosesnotty noble gases. In practice, that
means flooring is incredibly corrosive and dangerous. So much for florin oxidant rocket engines.
So in the end, what Ilearned was as straightforward as it was

(04:56):
cool. You do not need oxygento make things burn. There are other
elements, such as flooring and chlorinethat can drive combustion just fine. If,
however, you want combustion but donot want to burn everything inside or
corrode your face off, then oxygenis your element. To listen to all

(05:27):
the shows on the x Zone BroadcastNetwork. Visit www dot XZBN dot net
to watch the x Zone TV channel. Exclusive to SIMILTV, visit www dot
similtv dot com channel thirty two.Our motto is dare to believe They're to
be heard the x Zone searching foranswers, demanding the truth. Do you

(05:53):
have any comments, suggestions, showideas, Send them to admin at l
HIFMA dot com. For Roma McConnellMedia Company in London, England. I
am Brooke McGuire