Combustion Chemistry Diagnostics for Cleaner Processes

Abstract

Climate change, environmental problems, urban pollution, and the dependence on fossil fuels demand cleaner, renewable energy strategies. However, they also ask for urgent advances in combustion science to reduce emissions. For alternative fuels and new combustion regimes, crucial information about the chemical reactions from fuel to exhaust remains lacking. Understanding such relations between combustion process, fuel, and emissions needs reliable experimental data from a wide range of conditions to provide a firm basis for predictive modeling of practical combustion processes.

Isomer-sensitive characterization of low temperature oxidation reaction products by coupling a jet-stirred reactor to an electron/ion coincidence spectrometer: case of n-pentane

“…However, both require a comprehensive understanding of the combustion physico-chemical mechanisms explaining the reactivity behavior as a function of the temperature regime and of the fuel's molecular structure. [1] Detailed kinetic models based on elementary reactions help to address the influence of fuel-replacement and additives on the combustion reactions identifying chemical pathways that form hazardous pollutants. However, despite a long period of research on conventional petroleum-based fuels and more recently on alternative fuels, understanding detailed combustion processes is still a large and vivid field of investigation.…”

n-Heptane cool flame chemistry: Unraveling intermediate species measured in a stirred reactor and motored engine

“…These studies report fuel conversion, stable products, and a number of intermediates under various conditions in jet-stirred reactors (JSRs) [6][7][8][9][10][11], flow reactors [12][13][14], flames [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], and motored engines [24,25]. Reviewing this existing n-heptane oxidation data reveals that a comprehensive analysis of the pool of reactive intermediates is still scarce, especially under lowtemperature and high-pressure conditions; preventing an in-depth understanding of relevant mechanistic pathways and key rate coefficients for reactions controlling ignition and pollutant formation [26]. Assigning plausible, let alone correct structures, to such reactive intermediate species is challenging, both on experimental and theoretical grounds, because all relevant molecular conformations would have to be identified.…”

Advanced Biofuels and Beyond: Chemistry Solutions for Propulsion and Production

“…All these critical examinations must rely on appropriate experimental strategies,and alarge number of techniques are available for the in situ investigation of the combustion behavior from laboratory experiments to nearproduction engines. [120,[192][193][194][195][196][197] Experiments to validate the combustion chemistry are typically designed such that they can be computed in simple numerical configurations,t hat is,h omogeneous steady or unsteady reactors or one-dimensional flames.I nt hese configurations,g lobal parameters are often measured, such as auto-ignition delay times or extinction strain rates in diffusion flames.I na ddition, full sets of chemical species,i ncluding reaction intermediates,a re available from an umber of experimental configurations.…”