ERI: Characterizing and improving algae-derived biofuel droplet burning

藻类燃料为减少石油衍生液体燃料的消耗带来了巨大的机会，而不会与目前的农业用地竞争。尽管藻类燃料的生产及其在全尺寸发动机上的性能已经得到了广泛的研究，但仍然缺乏基本的液滴燃烧特性。该项目旨在获得关于藻类燃料液滴燃烧动力学的基本见解，如燃烧过程中液滴的演变、燃烧速度和煤烟倾向。这项研究还将确定通过使用添加剂来改善燃烧性能的方法。这将是使用藻类衍生燃料作为现有液体燃料替代品的重要一步，而无需对现有发动机进行任何重大修改。该项目的成果将有助于可再生能源利用的发展。该项目将支持本科生和研究生，特别是鼓励代表性不足的学生参与这项研究。被资助的学生将在实验设计、液滴燃烧、图像处理和数据分析方面获得广泛的研究经验。该项目旨在表征藻类衍生的可再生液体燃料液滴的燃烧过程，并找出通过使用聚合物和纳米颗粒添加剂来改善燃烧性能的方法。这项研究利用纤维支撑的孤立液滴燃烧系统的实验试验台来执行四项任务：i)对于藻类可再生液体燃料，从液滴尺寸、燃烧速度和碳烟形成的角度来表征液滴在燃烧过程中的演变；ii)确定传统石油衍生燃料和藻类燃料之间的燃烧特性差异；iii)了解液滴在不同混合和混合百分比下的燃烧动力学；以及iv)确定添加剂对这种燃料液滴燃烧特性和动力学的影响。这项研究的结果将提高我们对藻类衍生燃料作为“替代”环境可持续燃料以减少对化石燃料依赖的可行性的理解。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Algae-derived fuels bring great opportunities for reducing the consumption of petroleum-derived liquid fuels without competing with current agricultural land use. Although the production of algae-derived fuel and its performances in full-scale engines have been extensively studied, fundamental droplet burning characteristics is still lacking. This project aims to gain fundamental insights on algae-derived fuel droplet burning dynamics such as droplet evolution during burning, burning rate, and sooting propensity. The study will also identify ways to improve combustion properties by utilizing additives. This will be an important step in employing algae-derived fuels as alternatives to existing liquid fuels without any significant modification to existing engines. Results from this project will contribute to the development of renewable energy utilization. The project will support undergraduate and graduate students, especially encouraging underrepresented students to participate in this research. The supported students will receive a broad research experience in experimental design, droplet combustion, image processing, and data analysis. This project aims to characterize the algae-derived renewable liquid fuel droplet combustion process and identify ways to improve combustion properties by using polymer and nanoparticle additives. The study employs an experimental test rig of a fiber-supported isolated droplet combustion system to perform four tasks: i) for algae-derived renewable liquid fuel, characterizing droplets evolution during a combustion process in terms of droplet size, burning rate, and soot formation; ii) identifying combustion property differences between conventional petroleum-derived fuels and algae-derived fuels; iii) learning droplet burning dynamics with the change of different blending and blending percentages; and iv) determining impacts of additives on such fuel droplet combustion properties and dynamics. Results from the study will improve our understanding on the feasibility of algae-derived fuels as “drop-in” environmentally sustainable fuels to decrease fossil fuel dependency.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.