Orange or Blue secondary flames

[jadm]

Just wondering why my secondary flames with some loads are primarily orange while at other times with a different load of wood, the flames will be blue.

Insert temps. have been the same when I have noticed this so it doesn't appear to be related to the temp.

 

[Corey]

Could possibly have to do with the gases coming off the wood. If you have a lot of 'heavy' or high molecular weight gas, that tends to dump a lot of carbon in the flame and make a yellow/orange color (ie candles, kerosene lamp - heavy oil type stuff). Once those are gone and/or if you are burning wood which just naturally has less 'heavy' hydrocarbons, you get to the lighter ends which doesn't have as much carbon and tends to give a more blue flame (ie natural gas, methane, propane) Air flow may have some to do with it, too - as you can have a natural gas flame, choke off the air, and make it burn yellow. Same is true with the wood stove.

But I know what you are talking about - I've seen yellow, orange, blue, purple, white and sometimes blue/purple with white speckles. It can be an interesting show.

 

['bert]

that's why they put that glass on the front. Grab a 6 pack and enjoy the show, please report back when you have completed the "research".

 

[jadm]

Could possibly have to do with the gases coming off the wood. If you have a lot of 'heavy' or high molecular weight gas, that tends to dump a lot of carbon in the flame and make a yellow/orange color (ie candles, kerosene lamp - heavy oil type stuff). Once those are gone and/or if you are burning wood which just naturally has less 'heavy' hydrocarbons, you get to the lighter ends which doesn't have as much carbon and tends to give a more blue flame (ie natural gas, methane, propane) Air flow may have some to do with it, too - as you can have a natural gas flame, choke off the air, and make it burn yellow. Same is true with the wood stove.

But I know what you are talking about - I've seen yellow, orange, blue, purple, white and sometimes blue/purple with white speckles. It can be an interesting show.

Vary interesting. I will try to pay attention to the type of wood I am loading with and see how that changes things.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Corey]

^^ Ahh yes. that link reminds me of the other half of my thought. Chemicals - you can get a whole rainbow of colors from them. Sodium and potassium are by far the largest contributors. Sodium leads to the boring yellow, potassium is probably a contributor to the violet color. But if the wood happens to have a bit of other trace metals, those could tint the flame as well.

Link to some common colors

http://webmineral.com/help/FlameTest.shtml