Do natural gas fires have more yellow than propane?

[fan-of-fans]

I’ve noticed with propane fueled appliances (for example our Coleman stove or gas stoves I’ve seen in houses) that the flame is blue with maybe some slight yellow.

However on places that use natural gas I’ve noticed, such as on commercial ranges, that the flames look more yellow. Recently at Burger King I looked back and could see the flames in the top of the broiler, and they were all yellow.

Is this because natural gas burns yellow or is it the higher BTUs of the commercial equipment making the flames yellow?

We had a gas grill at one time and it does seem like The flames in it were more orange than blue also.

 

[gizmo]

I'm not the expert but I reckon I've noticed the opposite here - more yellow tips on LPG cookers than natural gas.

 

Really I think it is just the air to gas ratio - when it is perfect, there should be no yellow tips at all, or tiny yellow tips at worst. Max heat will be a pure blue flame. If a cooking burner had yellow flames, I'd be guessing that either (1) the yellow flame is meat fat burning, not the gas flame, or (2) the burner is sooted up and needs a decent clean, or (3) the burner aeration is wrong and needs the air passage opened (if adjustable) or a smaller gas orifice fitted, or (4) it is deliberate - make the flame "visible" to customers (to make it obviously "barbecued") by adjusting to a yellower flame.

 

[cfz2882]

yep,as stated above,burning conditions affect the color-I have a natural gas wall heater and the(enclosed,forced draft) flame visable through sight glass is very blue

 

[maytag85]

Usually if the burner is out of adjustment or is sooted up, it will cause a yellow flame. About 4 years ago when I completed the restoration on my 1973 Maytag DG306, I decided to make sure everything was dialed in and adjusted properly, even adjusted the burner while I was at it just to be sure everything was adjusted and gone through. When the mixer on the burner was fully open, was nothing but a pure blue flame along with a bit of a roar, when closed the flame was still blue but didn’t have as much of a roar and was burning a bit cooler since the heat that was radiating wasn’t as hot. Ended up settling somewhere in the middle since that’s how it was when I first got it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

When we had a gas stove, the flames were normally blue, but when we were cooking dinner and lots of people were using the gas, the flames would be shot through with orange. I was a little kid and asked mom why and she said that with all of the people using gas it stirred up impurities that were forced out. If you Google search this question, you can get some very complex answers, not all of which seem plausible. It seems the discussion was moved to a "chat" area of the site. Everything from water vapor to sodium to calcium was offered.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/why-does-the-humidifier-make-a-stoves-flame-orange