Experimental Studies of Coal and Biomass Fuel Synthesis and Flame Characterization for Aircraft Engines (Year Two)

Abstract

Several prototype, fast-pyrolysis reactors were built and tested to explore various reactor configurations. A high-pressure, fast-hydropyrolysis reactor system was designed based on the prototype, cyclone-type, fast-pyrolysis reactor. In addition, experiments were completed using a micro-scale reactor to better understand the fundamentals of char formation during fast-pyrolysis and fast-hydropyrolysis. To study coal gasification in the presence of excess hydrogen, an optically accessible, high-pressure and high-temperature entrained flow gasifier was constructed. This system utilizes a novel H2-O2 chemical steam generator to produce super-critical steam, and, when the steam generator is operated with equivalence ratios greater than one, gasification in a H2 rich environment can be studied. Tunable diode laser based in-situ gas species concentration measurements and detailed chemistry computations of the gasification process have been initiated. Finally, to analyze the combustion performance of the proposed synthetic liquid fuels, an opposed flow burner was constructed. Particle image velocimetry was used to quantify the velocity flow fields at various operating conditions. The results will be useful for simulation of counter-flow flames using axi-symmetric 2-D flame codes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 2011
Accession Number
ADA546870

Entities

People

  • Andrew Smeltz
  • Daniel Guildenbecher
  • Fabio H. Ribeiro
  • Jay Gore
  • Li Qiao
  • Rakesh Agrawal
  • Robert P. Lucht
  • Sameer Naik
  • W. N. Delgass

Organizations

  • Purdue University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • High Pressure
  • High Temperature
  • Laser Diodes
  • Liquids
  • Material Degradation Processes
  • Materials
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Pyrolysis

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy