They aren’t huddled over Enigma machines in a wartime hut — but today’s codebreakers are in refineries, labs, and government offices, puzzling out how to make Sustainable Aviation Fuel affordable, abundant, and everywhere. From hydrocracker hacks in Croatia to post‑Brexit fuel moonshots in the UK, from Hawaii’s island‑energy puzzle to solar‑made jet fuel in Switzerland, […]
IEA Bioenergy Task 32 investigates net negative GHG emissions via biomass combustion with CCUS. A newsworthy case study models full-scale CCUS at Denmark’s Skærbæk CHP plant, chosen for its green CO2, high operating hours, and location. Using the advanced Balmorel energy system model, simulations for 2035 show CCUS significantly increases district heating (from surplus heat) […]
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) is a complex system influenced by technical, economic, environmental, and societal factors. This presentation highlights the innovative need for models that address the socio-technical complexity of WtE, not just its technical aspects. “Participatory system dynamic modelling” is introduced as a key tool to foster consensus and facilitate strategy implementation among all stakeholders. The […]
By Huckleberry Finn (mostly) Special to The Digest You don’t know about me, Huck Finn, without you have read The Digest or Mr. Mark Twain before, but that ain’t no matter. Mr. Jim started the Digest 18 years ago today with not much more’n two readers and a notion about that folks could use a […]
This presentation highlights ethanol/methanol for off-road decarbonization, despite their low ignitability for compression ignition. Pilot injections are key, creating a flame kernel to ignite main sprays. Ethers improve ignitability but reduce efficiency in single-fuel blends, lowering NOx. Methanol port injection struggles with vaporization, causing liquid entry and weak combustion. Notably, active pre-chamber jets achieve diesel-like […]
Once, “Made in Japan” meant cheap. Post‑war trinkets and tinny radios. Disposable goods from a defeated nation. Today, it means something else entirely: precision, patience, and enduring quality — a symbol of how a fallen power can reforge itself through discipline. And now, in an irony almost Wagnerian, that same label carries the banner for […]
High-fidelity simulations are crucial for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) combustion modeling. DNS of aero-combustors shows premixed flames dominate heat release, with edge flames re-igniting extinction regions via coupled deflagration and ignition. Crucially, edge flames cause turbulent kinetic energy back-scatter, missed by current LES models. New constrained Deep Neural Network models significantly improve multi-modal combustion predictions. […]
This project de-risks Ducted Fuel Injection (DFI) for heavy-duty engine decarbonization with Low-Lifecycle-CO2 Fuels (LLCFs). The first-ever DFI retrofit for a production multi-cylinder engine was successfully implemented. Initial DFI testing revealed substantial NOx reductions (up to 80%) but significant soot increases (up to 1370%), indicating the need for further optimization. A robust mechanical alignment technique […]
by Doug Durante, Executive Director, Clean Fuels Development Coalition Special to The Digest The only way to ensure the long term health of the biofuel (RFS) program is with more biofuels. That is because the construct of the RFS allows RINS and SREs to eat away at the volumes, which by definition, would make the […]
This project supports off-road engine decarbonization via methanol and hydrogen, emphasizing injection challenges. Methanol experiments reveal significant plume collapse and accelerated inter-plume regions under flash-boiling, with slow evaporation causing potential wall wetting. Hydrogen jet studies show complex shockwave structures and substantial local cooling. These findings highlight key difficulties for CFD modeling and injector optimization. The […]
