This wildfire season, Stanford University is testing out new technology to stop monster wildfires with their own live fire lab. Researchers are working with the South San Francisco start-up tech company called BurnBot.
Stanford ecologist Esther Cole Adelsheim and her team of researchers are studying fire breaks at Stanford’s open space. They’re looking at 2000 feet of controlled burns from the machine called the BurnBot.
“Pink flags represent higher intensity burns,” said Adelsheim. “We had a slower speed with the BurnBot, and the orange flags are the lower intensity burns the BurnBot proceeded much faster.”
The BurnBot is a mobile burn chamber with three rows of propane torches inside. A remote-controlled vehicle tows the BurnBot just like a tractor, scorching the vegetation in its path and then quickly extinguishing it within the burn chamber.
“So it contains the fuel as it’s driving,” said Lee Haddad, BurnBot CTO and Co-Founder. “It burns the fuel at high temperature and high oxygen while preventing any escape fire.”
Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer Lee Haddad said crews can safely use the BurnBot in different types of terrain and weather conditions, burning right up to roads, homes and even power lines. He said there is no risk of escape fire with very little smoke production. That’s because high-temperature torches incinerate dry vegetation, fully containing the flames and embers within the burn chamber with fans on top of the machine also sucking in air to ensure any embers don’t escape. Water sprays and a heavy roller make sure there are no leftover flames at the back of the machine, eliminating the risk of escape fire. Water sprays also act as a partial smoke trapping system, which mitigates the release of smoke into the atmosphere. Haddad believes precise, safe controlled burns are the best way to prevent devastating wildfires.
“The big impact will come from fuel treatment from controlling where a fire will start, when it can start and where it can go,” said Haddad. “They are putting in fire breaks and the best way to do it is to remove the fuel and the best way to do that is by burning it. I saw how they’re doing it with drip torches and with traditional methods, I came up with this idea for the BurnBot.”
“I think it’s a very promising tool,” said Adelsheim. “I’m very pleased with how the burn reduced the fuel loads and I think it holds a lot of promise for thinking about how we restore some of these ecosystems.”
Adelsheim is excited about this new wildfire mitigation tool. She said her motivation is deeply personal.
“It’s very meaningful,” said Adelsheim. “I have two children, so I think a lot about the world that we are all leaving to them and what they will experience.”
For Adelsheim, even in the hot, summer sun, protecting our planet from destructive wildfires is more than worth it.
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Mary Lee
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