is there anything that can be mixed with gasoline that would prevent it from igniting?

Question

like say, if a plane were to crash the pilot can flood the fuel tank with it and stop it from exploding or catching fire.

billius...thanks for setting me straight on the fuel thing. I feel pretty silly about it. but also a bit smarter now since you told me of my error.

billius...thanks for setting me straight on the fuel thing. I feel pretty silly about it. but also a bit smarter now since you told me of my error. now I know.

opps...don't know how I managed the duplicate.

Answer 1

Whether you are trying to create a fire or prevent one, you must always go back to the basics of the fire triangle. Fire needs three things: fuel, an ignition source and an oxidizer. To get a little pickier, the ratio of fuel and oxidizer must be within a specific range.

To prevent a fire then, you need to do something to prevent those ingredients from coming together.

In a plane crash, you can't avoid an ignition source (hot jet engine parts flying everywhere, electrical sparks, etc). Likewise, you can't eliminate the fuel. So one good approach is to prevent or minimize the inclusion of the oxidizer (air, in this case). That might be accomplished by some sort of foam or something like that.

Another approach might be to deal with the air/fuel ratio. Drop a lighted match in a bucket of kerosene and what happens? The match goes out and sinks to the bottom. Toss a lighted match into a mist of kerosene in air and what happens? An explosion. So if you could do something that would gel the jet fuel very quickly or cause it to form into very large drops instead of a mist, then you may be able to prevent a fire

Answer 2

You could, in theory, introduce an oxygen displacing gas such as Halon into the fuel tank before impact to delay the ignition of the fuel. The only problem with that would be the fuel tank would probably rupture as they are in the wings of most aircraft. Plus when they leaked the Halon could get inside the passenger compartment and displace the air that people were breathing. That wouldn't be a good thing.
I think that you're wanting something more along the lines of a chemical that would solidify the fuel or something along those lines. I don't know of anything as of yet that would do that to fuel, but it would be a really good invention.

Answer 3

Hello Eyepopping Hideous Female Troll. I wish I knew the answer to your very interesting question,because I was wondering the same thing. Well actually I was wondering if it would be safe to sniff gas in the kitchen while dinners going. I'll keep an eye out on your answers to this one.

Answer 4

i'd use Potassium bicarbonate or FireAde. planes don't use gasoline, they use jet fuels which are closer to kerosene. look in wikipedia under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_extinguisher and look for those agents that are used to extinguish class b fires

Answer 5

I don't think that would work, in fact I think that might set the plane on fire

Answer 6

xyz. I have deleted my answer for the good of mankind.