Curious side note on some of our mistaken assumptions on ignition and combustion. (oxygen free)
Did you know that CO2 can be a useful oxidizer? There are actually a few chemicals that will burn quite violently in CO2. The main one is silane - which is a molecule like methane but with silicon at the core instead of carbon. Robert Zurbin suggest this in "The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must" and NASA has picked up on it, so I guess it is accurate. http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Mars-Settle-Planet/dp/0684835509 The atmosphere of Mars is mostly of carbon dioxide 95+%.
