A New Approach for Experimental Study of Fundamental Combustion Chemistry

燃烧过程是世界上电力、交通和制造业基础设施的基础。向新燃料原料的过渡和向新发动机技术的过渡为利用燃料特性来改善燃烧应用带来了挑战和机遇。该项目侧重于实验研究，以确定和量化燃料反应化学，这对成功整合新燃料和新发动机设计至关重要。开创性的新方法将被开发出来，以分离以前没有研究过的燃料化学。这种燃料化学仍未被发现的国家不是由于缺乏影响或意义，而是由于缺乏实验协议和设施。基于独特的化学反应堆设施（快速压缩设施，RCF），设计了一种技术方法，以隔离现代和下一代燃烧系统所要求的特别具有挑战性的条件下的燃料反应化学。RCF将用于将燃料混合物加热到600至1200 K的温度和3至30 atm的压力。快速取样将用于获取燃料在高温高压下反应时产生的少量气体。将对气体样品进行分析，以确定存在的化合物以及每种化合物的数量随时间的变化。根据这些数据，将在相关条件下确定对燃料燃烧重要的反应途径。通过有策略地选择案例来证明该方法，实验旨在以高可信度外推到类似的燃料。该项目还将为其他研究团队开创先例，将实验方法扩展到更广泛的燃料化合物类别，从而使传统和非常规化石燃料以及第一代和下一代生物燃料受益。

Combustion processes are the foundation of the electric power, transportation, and manufacturing infrastructures in the world. Transitions to new fuel feed stocks and transitions to new engines technologies pose challenges and opportunities to use the fuel properties to improve the combustion applications. This project focuses on experimental studies to identify and quantify fuel reaction chemistry important to successfully integrating new fuels and new engine designs. Pioneering new methods will be developed to isolate fuel chemistry that has not been previously studied. This fuel chemistry remains undiscovered country not due to lack of impact or significance, but due to the lack of experimental protocols and facilities. A technical approach has been designed based on the unique chemical reactor facility (a rapid compression facility, RCF) to isolate fuel reaction chemistry at the particularly challenging conditions required by modern and next-generation combustion systems. The RCF will be used to heat fuel mixtures to temperatures from 600 to 1200 K and pressures from 3 to 30 atm. Fast sampling will be used to acquire small amounts of the gases created while the fuel reacts at these high temperatures and pressures. The gas samples will be analyzed to identify the compounds present and the amounts of each compound as a function of time. From these data, the reaction pathways important to fuel combustion will be determined at relevant conditions. By strategically choosing the cases to demonstrate the approach, the experiments are designed to be extrapolated to similar fuels with high confidence. The project will also set precedence for other research teams to extend the experimental methods to broader classes of fuel compounds, thus benefiting conventional and unconventional fossil fuels as well as first and later generation biofuels.