Scientific production

 This paper performs calculations of the recirculation factor in simulations of a flameless combustion furnace with different percentages of oxygen in air (from 21% to 100% O2 ). Results are compared with Magnussen’s recirculation theory and show that when there are chemical reactions, the recirculation results are overpredicted. An alternative correlation to Magnussen’s theory is proposed, useful in calculating the recirculation factor in flameless furnaces.

This paper presents a model to calculate the thermal performance of a heat recovery unit fabricated from an alumina honeycomb matrix and a methodology for the discretization of the energy equations necessary to develop a calculation algorithm for designing and sizing compact heat recovery units. Based on the results from the algorithm, a prototype heat recovery unit built from alumina honeycomb was tested. The device reached an efficiency of 84% and an air preheating temperature of 621 °C for an 8.19 kW power level.

This study investigates the effects of biogas composition on combustion stability for a purely biogas fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. Biogas is one of the most promising renewable fuels for combined heat and power systems driven by internal combustion engines. However, the high content of CO2 in biogas composition leads to low thermal efficiencies in spark ignited and dual fuel compression ignited engines.

This paper presents a detailed exergy analysis of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines, including a crank-angle resolved breakdown of mixture exergy and exergy destruction. Exergy analysis is applied to a multizone HCCI simulation including detailed chemical kinetics. The HCCI simulation is validated against engine experiments for ethanol-fueled operation. The exergy analysis quantifies the relative importance of different loss mechanisms within HCCI engines over a range of engine operating conditions.

Numerical and experimental measurements of the laminar burning velocities of biogas (66% CH4 – 34% CO2) and a biogas/propane/hydrogen mixture (50% biogas – 40% C3H8 – 10% H2) were made with normal and oxygen-enriched air while varying the air/fuel ratio. GRI-Mech 3.0 and C1–C3 reaction mechanisms were used to perform numerical simulations. Schlieren images of laminar premixed flames were used to determine laminar burning velocities at 25 °C and 849 mbar. The mixture's laminar burning velocity was found to be higher to that of pure biogas due to the addition of propane and hydrogen.

The effect of hydrogen enrichment was tested for a diesel-biogas dual fuel engine. The operation and performance characteristics, such as thermal efficiency, pollutant emissions and combustion parameters were determined. Experiments have been carried with a stationary compression ignition (CI) engine coupled with a generator in dual mode using a typical biogas composition of 60% vol. CH4 and 40% vol. CO2. For every load engine evaluated, the hydrogen concentration was varied from 5 to 20% H2 v/v.

Several studies on the laminar burning velocity of syngas mixtures have been conducted by various researchers. However, in most of these studies, dry air was used as the oxidizer, whereas very few studies have been conducted on syngas combustion in oxygen – enriched air. In this work, a numerical and experimental study on the laminar burning velocity of a mixture of H2, CO and N2 (20:20:60 vol%) was performed using air enriched with oxygen as the oxidizer, varying the oxygen content from 21% up to 35% for different equivalence ratios.

This paper presents a numerical analysis using the CFD Fluent (6.3.26 version) program to identify the effects that can be generated when using radiant tubes with internal recirculation of combustion products, but with a pre-combustion chamber. The numerical results are validated with an experimental assembly based on the outlet deviation of gases temperature. These deviations were less than 5 % and are attributed principality to isolation deficiency in the re-radiant surface.

The effect of oxygen enriched air was tested for a diesel-biogas dual fuel engine. The operation and performance characteristics, such as thermal efficiency, pollutant emissions and combustion parameters were determined. Experiments have been carried out with a stationary compression ignition (CI) engine coupled with a generator in dual mode using a typical biogas composition of 60 vol. %CH4 and 40% vol. %CO2. For every engine load evaluated, the oxygen concentration in the intake air engine was varied from 21% to 27% O2 v/v.

In this research oxygen enrichment, gasoline pilot port injection, and delayed time of 50% cumulative heat release (CA50) are evaluated to expand the range for stable and safe combustion of a lean-burning biogas-fueled HCCI engine. A 4-cylinder 1.9 L Volkswagen TDI engine was modified to run in HCCI mode at 1800 rpm, and boost pressures and charge heating are used to promote autoignition of the biogas-in-air mixture at desired combustion timings. A typical biogas composition of 60% CH4 and 40% CO2 in a volumetric basis was simulated by controlling the CH4 and CO2 flow rates.