Utilisation of Synthetic Fuels for "Difficult-to-Decarbonise" Propulsion

Started

Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Other Supporting Data)
Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Production of transport biofuels (incl. Production from wastes))

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Chemical Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr X Jiang
Engineering
Lancaster University

Standard

EPSRC

01 August 2023

31 July 2026

36 months

£436,930

Energy

North West

Energy : Energy

Dr X Jiang, Engineering, Lancaster University

Dr E Boek, Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London
Dr N Karimi, Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow

Project Contact, Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Project Contact, Shell Research Ltd
Project Contact, Carnival UK

Decarbonising the transport sector is a top priority worldwide. The difficult-to-decarbonise transport applications (including mainly shipping, road freight and aviation) emit more than 50% CO2 of the entire transport sector. Among efforts on developing low-emission fuels, liquid synthetic fuels that can massively reduce pollutant emissions are drawing increasing attention, as they can be integrated into the current transportation system using existing infrastructure and combusted in existing engines (such as diesel engines for optimal fuel economy) with minor adjustments as drop-in fuels. Liquid synthetic fuels such as oxymethylene ethers (OMEx, which possess liquid properties similar to diesel when x=3-5) can be produced from a range of waste feedstocks and biomass, thereby avoiding new fossil carbon from entering the supply chain. OMEx can also be produced as an electrofuel (or e-fuel), thereby used as a sustainable energy carrier. However, due to the lack of complete knowledge of the physicochemical properties associated with the fuel composition variability, i.e. variation in the oligomer length (the x value of OMEx) and the composition variation of OMEx-diesel blends in real engine environment, there are challenges in utilising OMEx in practical engines, mainly in engine and its operation adjustments for optimal performance and minimal pollutant emissions. To address the technical issues of OMEx utilisation, accurate information on physicochemical properties and pollutant emissions of the synthetic fuels over the engine operational ranges is mandatory, but this is not readily available.This project is intended to obtain a thorough understanding on liquid synthetic fuel utilisation. The project will address the fundamental challenges in utilising renewable synthetic fuels, in particular OMEx and the associated OMEx-diesel fuel blends. The study will follow a combined modelling / simulation - experimentation approach, predicting the physicochemical properties including emission characteristics of the alternative fuels using molecular dynamics simulations, tailor-made experimentation for first-hand information on fuel utilisation, and establishing a database / mapping to guide the synthetic fuel utilisation in real engines over a wide range of conditions using machine learning.

20/09/23