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Scientists Have a New Plan to Save the Oceans: Set Them on Fire

But what if we harnessed the awesome power of fire tornadoes… for good?

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But what if we harnessed the awesome power of fire tornadoes… for good? This is likely the thought process that went into a real-life scientific innovation that could become a game-changer for environmental disaster cleanup… or for evil governments seeking a wild new weapon to wield.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have found a way to deliberately set the ocean on fire to create fire tornadoes, all in an effort to expedite post-oil-spill cleanup. In a recent paper published in Fuel (proof that there is a hyper-niche scientific journal for every pursuit in life) and detailed on the Texas A&M University website, scientists explored using “fire whirls,” aka fire tornadoes, to clean up oil spills.

It sounds like a risky last-ditch effort whipped up at the 11th hour by a desperate, sleepless scientist in a disaster movie. But in practice, it’s a tightly controlled column of spinning flame that burns hotter and more efficiently than a standard oil fire.

Could Massive Fire Tornadoes Save the Oceans?

If this sounds counterintuitive—fighting an environmental disaster in the ocean by creating an environmental disaster in the air—well, that is the uncomfortable truth of oil spills. One of the primary methods for cleaning up oil spills is in-situ burning, which involves coralling oil on the water’s surface and lighting it on fire. The Texas A&M team wanted to see if they could improve the tactic.

They built 316-foot walls and a rough triangle and generated a controlled fire whirl that reached 17 feet high. Instead of spreading out like a usual fire, the flames spun up, concentrating the heat. Compared to traditional in-situ burning, the fire whirl reduced soot emissions by about 40 percent and burned off up to 95 percent of the fuel.

It also worked nearly twice as fast, potentially limiting how far oil can spread and reducing long-term ecological damage. In short, and to be as cheesy as a disaster movie scientist in the third act, preliminary tests show that it’s an idea just crazy enough to work.

It’s not hard to imagine a Cobra Commander type (of which there seems to be far too many nowadays) eyeing this research and penciling it into their world domination plans. But for now, scientists are putting good use to something that sounds like it would be a part of the Biblical apocalypse.

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