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Utility industry news and analysis for energy professionals.

Utility industry news and analysis for energy professionals.

Key to Cleaner Combustion? Look to the Stars 6H 6, the benzene ring – an elegant, hexagonal molecule comprised of 6 carbon and 6 hydrogen atoms. Astrophysicists say that the benzene ring could be the fundamental building block of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, the most basic materials formed from the explosion of dying, carbon-rich stars. That swirling mass of matter would eventually give shape to the earliest forms of carbon – precursors to molecules some scientists say are conne...

3·, gave rise to the first aromatic ring, benzene. The current study is the first demonstration of the so-called “radical propargyl self-reaction” under astrochemical and combustion conditions. Using a high-temperature, coin-sized chemical reactor called the “hot nozzle,” the researchers simulated the high-pressure, high-temperature environment inside a combustion engine as well as the hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, and observed the formation of isomers – molec...

0 Shares Illustration of a supernova explosion. Such swirling masses of matter gave shape to the earliest forms of carbon – precursors to molecules some scientists say are connected to the synthesis of the earliest forms of life on Earth. (Credit: NASA images/Shutterstock) F or nearly half a century, astrophysicists and organic chemists have been on the hunt for the origins of C 6H 6, the benzene ring – an elegant, hexagonal molecule comprised of 6 carbon and 6 hydrogen atoms. Astrophysicis...