Francis Yee

Fire continues to be a major cause of materiel destruction and loss of life. Despite extensive research in this area, there have been no new methods for extinguishing and/or manipulating fire in almost 50 years. Halon, the gold-standard chemical fire suppressants developed in the 1960's, is being phased out due to its depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer. All current halon replacements are inferior in performance and are typically toxic and/or ozone depleting. The detrimental effects of such classical chemical fire suppressants arise from the fact that they are designed to terminate the hundreds of coupled chain reactions in the hot active combustion zone of a flame, the kinetics of which are largely unknown. A new means for rapid and effective suppression of fires are needed. A radically new approach to both fire manipulation and suppression lies in the realization that flames are cold plasma consisting of fast moving negative electrons and slower positive ions. This discovery, first put on a firm chemical basis by Calcote in 1957, has its origins in the classic work of Volta in the early 1800's on the “electrical nature” of flames. Since typical flames cannot exist without stable plasma, this provides an effective point of attack: control the flame to control the fire. Control includes both fire extinguishment and flame manipulation. The bending of flames by electric fields was first demonstrated in the 1870's. Manipulation of flames could permit the creation of “escape corridors” in flame-filled environments, and achieve the spatial localization / confinement required to prevent spreading of fire to other combustible materials. In my fire suppression technology methods from plasma physics and physical chemistry have been combined to create new capabilities for fire suppression. The innovation in my Fire Suppressant System is based on destabilization/manipulation of the flame plasma by physical (i.e., electromagnetic) means.