Category: Multi-Slide Guides

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Dynamic Understanding of Waste-to-Energy Futures

July 28, 2025 | Jim Lane

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 […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Heavy-Duty H2 Combustion

July 27, 2025 | Jim Lane

Sandia National Laboratories is advancing hydrogen internal combustion engines (H2ICE) for hard-to-electrify sectors, targeting 2024-2027 market entry. Key findings: increased swirl improves H2 mixing, yet cyclic variability remains. Crucially, hydrogen significantly delays hydrocarbon auto-ignition, providing new insights into oil pre-ignition. Pre-chamber fueling with H2 reduces cyclic variability and enables ultra-lean operation, outperforming natural gas. This […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Alcohol Combustion in CI Engines

July 24, 2025 | Jim Lane

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 […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to DNS/LES and Modeling of SAF Flame Stabilization

July 23, 2025 | Jim Lane

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. […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Mixing-Controlled Compression-Ignition Combustion with Low-Lifecycle-CO2 Fuels

July 22, 2025 | Jim Lane

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 […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Alcohol Spray and Hydrogen Jet Experiments and Modeling

July 21, 2025 | Jim Lane

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 […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to SAF

July 20, 2025 | Jim Lane

Global planned capacity for Renewable Diesel (RD), Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), and Dimethyl Ether (DME) reached 23.699 billion units by June 2024, a 3% increase. Key drivers include RFS RVOs and Net Zero targets. A significant development is California’s withdrawal of its Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) waiver request, creating uncertainty for fleet electrification. Feedstock affordability […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Feedstocks and Advanced Agriculture

July 17, 2025 | Jim Lane

Demand for Sustainable, Affordable, Reliable, Available (SARA) feedstock is sky-high, especially for SAF, but it’s tough to find. Competition and pushback exist for conventional crops, necessitating more residues, like forest waste. Positively, new technologies for waste-to-fuels and intermediate crops are arriving, with new crops becoming available and marginal lands being utilized. The 2023 Billion-Ton Report […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Renewable Chemicals & Materials

July 16, 2025 | Jim Lane

Consumer demand for biobased materials is strong, and innovation is rampant with first commercial products becoming more common. Chemicals and materials offer higher margins suitable for early-stage companies. However, the sector faces significant headwinds, including a lack of mandates or tax credits, immature capital markets, slow adoption by formulators, high costs, and scarce production capacity. […]

The Digest’s 2025 Multi-Slide Guide to Syngas for Recarbonization of Industry

July 15, 2025 | Jim Lane

Hard-to-electrify industries require green carbon via REcarbonization, with biomass a sustainable source. Green syngas from lignocellulosic biomass through gasification and pyrolysis is a platform chemical for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), Green Methanol, and Green Hydrogen. Challenges include scaling FT SAF via green syngas economically/technically, high CAPEX for methanol, and complex biomass pre-treatment and syngas cleanup […]

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