Investigation into the Mechanism of Soot Formation from Biomass Combustion
EMSL Project ID
42325
Abstract
With climate change and national security as driving forces the search for alternative fuel sources is leading many nations to explore the use of bio-fuels. Changing fuels is undoubtedly going to result in a transformation of the pollutant by-products that energy use is known for. Based on what we learned from the past we anticipate particulate emissions to play an important role in determining which of the bio-fuels could be used and in what combustion mode. The goal of the proposed research is to lay groundwork by characterizing PM loadings, size distributions, and particle compositions as a function of fuel and combustion mode. Combustion particles are most often smaller the 150 nm and therefore hard to detect making single particle characterization almost impossible. SPLAT II, EMSL's single particle mass spectrometer, is the only instrument of this type that is capable of detecting, sizing, and characterizing the composition, and fractal dimension of particles as small as 50 nm. We propose to combine our expertise in bio-fuel combustion with EMSL's SPLAT II to characterize the properties of particles emitted during bio-fuel combustion. In phase 1 of this research, we have successfully carried out a set of preliminary experiments, in which a number of fuels were investigated. We have collected a large amount of data on hundreds of thousands of particles emitted during combustion and these data have already revealed some very interesting and unexpected information. We are in the early stages of preparing a publication that will present the results and intend to build on the success of the first phase, continuing to expand into more fuels and covering a number of combustion conditions.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2011-01-25
End Date
2012-01-29
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Characterisation of Soot Produced on Combustion of Biomass and Fossil Fuel Proxy Compounds . , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA. [Unpublished]