CAREER: Low-Temperature Plasma Assisted Combustion of Oxygenated Fuels for Cleaner and Sustainable Mobility

同时开发电动汽车，以及使用可再生生物燃料的下一代发动机，已被证明是满足能源需求和提高交通运输部门未来可持续性的有效策略。然而，在整个发动机运行领域中，在高燃料稀薄的条件下，使用具有大量含氧成分的燃料实现可靠燃烧，已被证明是一项技术挑战。低温等离子体（LTP）被视为克服这一障碍的有利技术，因为它们具有增强燃烧、提供快速气体加热和促进火焰核生长的能力。但是，等离子体效应与基本燃烧现象之间的相互作用，以有效地耦合LTP和生物燃料的利用，仍然存在知识空白。利用独特的实验平台和为等离子体辅助燃烧（PAC）研究量身定制的建模工具，该项目旨在揭示这些化学基础，以证明增强的化学反应性，改善能量提取和点火，减少污染物的形成。该项目的成果将与学术界和工业界公开分享，以支持LTP创新，并对汽车、航空航天和能源相关应用的燃烧工程产生直接影响，为经济全球化和发展中经济体带来总体效益。为了整合LTP燃烧研究和教育，该项目将：(1)利用基于游戏的学习逐步参与本科/研究生课程，引入新知识；(2)参与K-12外展计划，以扩大代表性不足的STEM学生的参与；(3)通过制作新的动画视频向公众传播研究成果，强调能源可持续性的重要性，同时教育其社会、政治和经济影响。基于ltp的技术对于推动下一代内燃机向可再生生物燃料和稀释燃烧战略发展至关重要。该项目解决了等离子体对燃烧反应性和点火特性的影响缺乏基本理解的问题，并增加了对含氧燃料的新的重视。这项工作也为LTP在改善燃烧工程方面的优点提供了新的证明。这些贡献将通过LTP等离子体对含氧燃料低温燃烧（LTC）反应动力学和点火特性的影响以及随后对污染物形成和稀燃反应性的影响的研究来实现。结果将通过等离子体耦合实验设施和数值模型来证明，以测量关键的化学物质和燃烧指标，并模拟重要的反应，以阐明对以下方面的理解：(1)基于氧官能性的一系列含氧燃料的LTP对LTC化学反应性的改变；(2)残余气体组分和污染物形成动力学下LTC反应性的后续变化；(3)含氧燃料在燃料稀薄和稀燃条件下的点火和放热特性的变化；(4)为预测仿真工具开发pac特定的动力学机制。这一贡献意义重大，因为预计它将构成目前缺乏的研究进展，以证明通过LTP改变高辛烷值含氧燃料的化学反应性的能力。最终，这项研究将支持LTP作为一项技术，使先进的压缩点火发动机的反应性控制成为可能，并推动未来可再生生物燃料的设计，以实现可持续的未来交通。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。

Concurrent development of electric vehicles, along with next-generation engines using renewable biofuels has shown to be an effective strategy to meet the energy demands and improve the future sustainability of the transportation sector. However, achieving reliable combustion with fuels that exhibit a large selection of oxygenated components, at highly fuel-lean conditions, across the operational domain of the engine has proven a technological challenge. Low-temperature plasmas (LTP) are seen as an enabling technology to overcome this barrier, due to their demonstrated ability to enhance combustion, provide fast-gas heating and facilitate flame kernel growth. But there remains a knowledge gap on the interaction between plasmachemical effects and the basic combustion phenomenon to effectively couple the utilization of LTP and biofuels. Leveraging unique experimental platforms and modeling tools tailored for plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) research, this project aims to uncover these chemical fundamentals that could demonstrate enhanced chemical reactivity, improved energy extraction and ignition, with reduced pollutant formation. The results from this project will be shared openly with both academia and industry to support LTP innovation and have an immediate impact on combustion engineering for vehicular, aerospace and energy-related applications, with overarching benefits towards economic globalization and developing economies. To integrate LTP combustion research and education, this project will: (1) leverage game-based learning to progressively engage the undergraduate/graduate curriculum to introduce new knowledge; (2) engage with a K-12 outreach program to broaden the participation of underrepresented STEM students; and (3) disseminate research findings to the general public by developing a new animation video with emphasis on the importance of energy sustainability, while educating on its social, political and economic implications. LTP-based technologies are essential to advance next-generation internal combustion engines toward renewable biofuels and dilute-burn strategies. This project addresses the lack of fundamental understanding of plasmachemical effects on combustion reactivity and ignition characteristics, and adds a new emphasis on oxygenated fuels. This work also provides a new demonstration of the merits of LTP to improve combustion engineering. These contributions will be achieved through a study of LTP plasmachemical effects on the low-temperature combustion (LTC) reaction kinetics of oxygenated fuels and ignition characteristics, and subsequent implications on pollutant formation and dilute-burn reactivity. Outcomes will be demonstrated through plasma-coupled experimental facilities and numerical models to measure key chemical species and combustion metrics, and simulate important reactions to elucidate an understanding of: (1) the alteration of LTC chemical reactivity by LTP for a range of oxygenated fuels based on oxygen functionality; (2) subsequent alteration of LTC reactivity in the presence of residual gas components and pollutant formation kinetics; (3) the alteration of ignition and heat-release characteristics of oxygenated fuels toward fuel-lean and dilute-burn conditions; and (4) development of a PAC-specific kinetic mechanism for predictive simulation tools. This contribution is significant because it is expected to constitute a progression of research that is currently lacking to demonstrate the ability to alter the chemical reactivity of high-octane oxygenated fuels through LTP. Ultimately, this research will support LTP as a technology to enable reactivity control for advanced compression-ignition engines and drive future designs toward renewable biofuels to achieve a sustainable future for mobility.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.