SBIR Phase I: Continuous Water in Fuel Emulsification to Decrease Fuel Consumption and Increase Brake Thermal Efficiency in a Diesel Engine for Maritime Application

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响将是使世界各地的海运公司能够降低其能源消耗成本并改善温室气体排放。由于几乎一半的海上运输运营成本与燃料消耗有关，因此经济效益是巨大的。该项目的预期成果是一项技术，将被改造到现有的船队，以提高燃油效率，同时减少对环境有害的排放。该项目旨在通过在燃料乳剂中使用水来提高燃料馏分油（从柴油到重质燃料油）的热效率。该技术方法涉及到一种工艺的开发，该工艺可以连续一致地获得一种均匀的乳液，这种乳液可以在内燃机内有效地点燃。将开发一种即时消耗的在线系统，以减轻相分离和液滴团聚。这种新型乳化液将提供足够的热量、润滑性和低腐蚀性，可与标准的无水燃料相媲美。提高热效率将在一定程度上有助于海运业实现其目标，即到2030年将每次运输工作的二氧化碳排放量减少至少40%，到2050年将努力减少70%。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to enable maritime shipping companies around the world to decrease their energy consumption costs and improve greenhouse gas emissions. The economic benefits are substantial since almost half of maritime shipping operating costs are related to fuel consumption. The expected outcome of this project is a technology that will be retrofitted to existing shipping fleets to increase fuel efficiency while decreasing environmentally harmful emissions. This project seeks to improve thermal efficiency of fuel distillates, ranging from diesel to heavy fuel oil, by using water in fuel emulsions. The technical approach involves the development of process to continuously and consistently achieve a homogeneous emulsion that can efficiently ignite inside an internal combustion engine. An inline system for immediate consumption will be developed to mitigate phase separation and droplet agglomeration. The novel emulsion will provide adequate heat content, lubricity, and low corrosivity comparable to standard water-free fuel. The increased thermal efficiency will in part contribute to efforts by the maritime industry to achieve their goals of reducing CO2 emissions per transport work by at least 40% by 2030, pursuing efforts towards 70% by 2050.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.