Radical Kinetics For Combustion Applications

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Coal, Coal combustion)
Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Applications for heat and electricity)
Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Oil and gas combustion)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr P Seakins
Sch of Chemistry
University of Leeds

Standard

EPSRC

20 June 2005

19 December 2009

54 months

£867,664

Mechanical engineering

Yorkshire & Humberside

Physical Sciences

Dr P Seakins, Sch of Chemistry, University of Leeds

Professor DE Heard, Sch of Chemistry, University of Leeds
Professor M Pilling, Sch of Chemistry, University of Leeds

Despite environmental concerns, combustion will remain a major source of energy into the medium term. Many uncertainties remain in combustion chemistry ranging from fundamental processes such as energy transfer and the role of excited state species in pollutant and soot formation, through generic issues such as alkyl radical decompositions, to specific problems such as sulphur chemistry. Particularly important in the latter category is the coupling of biofuels to the combustion cycle. Do fuelssuch as ethanol or di-methylether lead to the generation of new radicals, or substantially different chemistry than conventional fossil fuels.Our approach is to study individual reactions over as wide a temperature range as possible, to use these data to validate theoretical models which can then be used to extrapolate the rate data to combustion conditions and to give important insights into the fundamental physical processes taking place in the reactions. Finally, the work is put into context and the implications of the results examined by large scale simulations of combustion chemistry using numerical integration techniques and sensitivity analysis.The major component of this work is practical in nature and builds on the facilities at Leeds that have recently been enhanced by a major JIF award. Radicals are selectively generated by laser flash photolysis and then concentrations of reagents and products are monitored to yield the kinetic information. An important aspect of our work is the ability to deploy a variety of detection techniques to minimize possible systematic errors and allow for the determination of multiple products and branching ratios. The output of the research will be a greater understanding of the fundamental combustion chemistry and the implications of changing fuel stocks on performance and emissions. The proposers have strong links with the combustion modelling and engineering communities (in Leeds, the UK and internationally) that will allow them to efficiently disseminate the work and put the project into an appropriate context

01/01/07