FIREFIGHTERS and aircraft makers could benefit from a newly patented chemical
system that creates vast quantities of cool gas without using enormous
pressurised gas cylinders.
Right now, fire extinguishers and emergency chutes on aircraft need large,
heavy cylinders to hold the gases. These make extinguishers and chutes heavy and
hard to use, adding weight and wasting fuel in aircraft.
But Russian and Dutch scientists have developed a system that replaces the
hefty nitrogen tanks. It weighs half as much and occupies half the volume, says
Ronald van den Berg of the Dutch research lab, TNO, who’s been commercialising
the process…
