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

小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将使世界各地的海运公司能够降低能源消耗成本并减少温室气体排放。 经济效益很大，因为海运业务成本的近一半与燃料消耗有关。该项目的预期成果是一项技术，将用于改造现有船队，以提高燃料效率，同时减少对环境有害的排放。该项目旨在通过在燃料乳液中使用水来提高从柴油到重质燃料油的燃料馏分的热效率。 该技术方法涉及开发连续且一致地实现可在内燃机内有效点火的均匀乳液的工艺。 将开发一个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含量、润滑性和低腐蚀性，与标准无水燃料相当。 热效率的提高将在一定程度上有助于海运业实现到2030年将每次运输工作的二氧化碳排放量减少至少40%的目标，并在2050年实现70%的目标。该奖项反映了NSF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.