Proposal Number: CTS-0553439 Principal Investigator: Brezinsky, Kenneth Institution: University of Illinois - Chicago Proposal Title: Biologically Derived Diesel Fuels and NO Formation As a consequence of the need to reduce nitric oxide, NO, pollutant emissions from the diesel engine combustion of biologically derived fuels, a number of shock tube studies will be undertaken to determine the source of the nitric oxide. The experimental work of determining which different chemical species are formed from different biodiesel fuel components will be combined with a computational approach to address the primary goal of the proposed study understanding the source of higher NO production from biologically derived diesel fuels containing double bonds (unsaturated fuels). The result will be a predictive model of NO formation clarifying the difference between saturated (no double bonds) and unsaturated biodiesel components. The potential technical benefit of this work is the selection of additives or symbiotic biodiesel fuel components for reduction of the pollutant, NO. However the much broader societal and educational impacts of the research will be on the facilitation of the use of indigenous biodiesel fuel sources for enhanced national security and energy independence and on the education of undergraduate, graduate students and post doctoral associates of diverse backgrounds since the UIC shock tube facility has already successfully and significantly aided the academic development and experimental/computational training in the cross cutting field of combustion science of many previous students. It is the primary objective of this proposed work to determine through the use of our high pressure, high temperature single pulse shock tube what is the chemical source of higher NO in double bonded molecular constituents of biodiesel fuels, the intellectual merit of this work, and potentially reduce the formation of NO through the increased understanding and modeling. Accordingly the following activities are planned and contribute directly to the intellectual merit of the proposed work: 1) Oxidation and pyrolysis of the representative, commercially available long chain biodiesel constituents methyl octanoate and methyl octenoate in the UIC high pressure single pulse shock tube with stable species measurements as a function of temperature, 1100-1800K, representative diesel engine pressures, 15-100 bar, and equivalence ratios, 0.5 - 4 and . 2) Detailed chemical kinetic modeling of species concentration versus temperature profiles and high pressure for methyl octanoate and methyl octenoate. 3) Integration of detailed chemical kinetic model for methyl octanoate and methyl octenoate with a predictive NO model that discriminates between NO consequences of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid side chains.
