Performance of the Clean Exhaust Engine Concept

Abstract

The climatic effects of air-traffic pollutants, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and mononitrogen oxides (NOx), aerosols, contrails, and aviation induced cirrus clouds, are repeatedly stressed in assessment reports. It is therefore desired to reduce all aviation emissions simultaneously. In this paper, a novel propulsion concept, which has the potential to reduce all pollutants, is assessed regarding its performance. It is based on gas turbine technology, derived from the intercooled and recuperated engine cycle. Exhaust water condensation is facilitated inside the engine to avoid the formation of contrails. Particles and aerosols are scavenged from the exhaust gases during condensation. The condensed water is partially redirected into the combustion chamber to mitigate NOx emissions via water injection technique. Calculations suggest that this new concept allows higher thermal efficiencies than conventional designs, yielding in better fuel economy and hence reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The corresponding design parameters for bypass ratio and fan pressure ratio suggest that this concept might be well suited for propfans or remotely driven fans.

Turbo-electric distributed propulsion – opportunities, benefits and challenges

“…As water is the main constituent of engine exhaust, the droplet size of the water could be managed through condensation, it could result in either the formation of contrails and contrail-induced cirrus clouds resulted, leading to global warming and if smaller than the wave length of light could be used for diffraction of suns radiation, resulting in global cooling. This would result in aviation contributing to manage climate stability, rather than being a potential climate hazard, particularly in terms of global warming (Noppel et al, 2009;Singh, 2014).…”

Investigation of the pressure drop inside a rectangular channel with a built-in U-shaped tube bundle heat exchanger

“…The intercooled recuperative engine is regarded as an innovative concept for improving the fuel consumption and reducing the pollutants of high-bypass turbofan engines (Kyprianidis, Grönstedt, Ogaji, Pilidis, & Singh, 2011;Noppel, Lucisano, & Singh, 2009). Recuperative heat exchangers are installed inside the exhaust nozzle to exploit the thermal energy of external exhaust gas (relative to the heat exchangers) for pre-heating the internal air (relative to the heat exchangers) which is drawn from the compressor and then forced into the combustor.…”