NPR’s February 4, 2023 podcast with transcript Gas stove makers have a pollution solution. They’re just not using it mentions:
The natural gas industry saw regulators’ interest and worried the CPSC might come for gas cooking stoves next, according to a 1984 Science News article. That prompted two industry research groups to begin working on burner improvements.
Out of that process emerged a “jet-powered infrared gas-range burner.”
Instead of the iconic blue flame that you normally see at a gas stove, the infrared burner had “a flat ceramic plate… honeycombed with window-screen-like perforations,” according to the article. Air and fuel burned as they were sent across the plate and ignited bright red in a way that makes the flame itself difficult to see.
This infrared burner consumed about 40% less natural gas to reach cooking temperatures and emitted 40% less nitrogen oxides. The Science News article said designers touted another benefit of the infrared burner: a kitchen stays cooler because more energy goes into the cooking vessel instead of the room.
A Pennsylvania-based stove manufacturer, Caloric Corporation, expressed interest in the infrared burner. That company is no longer in business and was absorbed into Whirlpool Corporation, which did not respond to multiple inquiries about why the burner was never offered in retail stoves.
Question: What would a stovetop “jet-powered infrared gas-range burner” look like and how would it work? Is the pan actually heated primarily by infrared radiation, or is conduction from the hot surface and/or contact with the flame also providing heat transfer?
