Development
Current research focuses on cost reduction using reactions without odor or fumes. One heat source in development uses air-activation reactions that utilize oxidation of common metals like iron or zinc. Another uses solid fuel energy storage technology. The heating element contains aluminum and silica, two benign materials, which in an intimately mixed powdered state can undergo a chemical reaction to give off a large amount of heat. The small heater unit is formulated to give high utilization of the chemical energy content and generates 720 calories of heat per gram. To view a demonstration of the aluminum/silica self-heating "Self-Heating Coffee Demonstration" on YouTube Neither technology is commercially available.
Read more about this topic: Self-heating Food Packaging, Heating Methods
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“Sleep hath its own world,
And a wide realm of wild reality.
And dreams in their development have breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)