Lead Investigator:
Dr Khizer Saeed D.Phil(Oxford,UK), MSAE(USA)
Senior Lecturer, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics
University of Brighton, Brighton, BN2 4GJ
1. Development of Future Sustainable Fuels
Low Carbon Energy research group is active in developing novel fully sustainable future fuels. The research is currently carried out on the development of the future fuels in the following areas:
- Process kinetics and optimisation.
- Oxidative stability and their control strategies.
- Lubricity and their improvements.
- New catalyst development and performance for biodiesel applications
- Emissions and engine performance of new biodiesel.
Research is also currently initiated to develop novel fully sustainable future biofuels such Algal Oils. Research is supported by the biofuels research laboratory which has highly sophisticated biofuels testing and analysis equipments, a pilot scale bio-refinery for biofuels production and optimisation studies. The future fuel research has strong industrial links with Rye Biofuels Ltd, Fuel Oils Ltd, Thames Water Ltd, Ricardo Plc.and with EPSRC etc.
Projects:
- Understanding of Biodiesel Fuel Quality and Performance -( James Pullen- Ph.D Student)
- Oxidative Stability Measurments of biodiesel -(Dinesh Kumar- M.Sc Student)
- Measurements of the lubricity of the emerging biofuels-(Vikas Puthukkudiyil-Student).
- Used Cooking Oil for Biodiesel production - (Big Green Challenge project- Ford Prison UK)
2. Waste Heat Recovery
Currently, low temperature exhaust heat from the energy systems such as domestic and commercial boilers, water heaters, dryers, furnaces, kilns, ovens, and dryer, incinerators, combined heat and powers, generators, vehicles, power plants etc goes out in the environment as waste heat. For e.g. a 4.5 MW furnace using 400litres oil/hour rejects 2.45 MW of heat which is equivalent to wastage of 200litres of oil and ~1.2 tonnes of CO2 per hour. Practically, it is possible to capture this waste heat and convert it into useful zero emissions electricity using waste heat recovery systems such as Organic Rankine Cycle (ROC) system. ORC systems works on Rankine Cycle using low freezing point organic fluids in place of steam. This change allows it to capture low temperature exhaust heat available between 120 to 400 °C. Research on waste heat recovery (WHR) is currently focussed on following areas:
- Developing waste heat availability (WHA) simulation model for different energy systems
- Development of the micro reverse air-conditioning system on Organic Rankine Cycle System.
- Identification of the organic working fluids and its optimum operating conditions.
Project:
- Developing and embedding a capability of an Organic Rankine Cycle electrical generation systems for waste heat recovery in commercial steam boiler applications. (KTP Associates).
3. Micro CHP Systems
Co-generation, also known as the CHP (Combined heat and power), is a well known high efficient approach to generate electricity and thermal energy (for heating and cooling) from a single fuel source. This means lower fuel consumption, the energy is generated at lower cost, and in a more environmentally friendly way. Furthermore, co-generation can provide high quality and reliable electric supply. All these have made use of CHP plants more attractive In future these solutions will inevitably be more common. Mini CHP plants (10-50 kW) have been traditionally developed and used in the industrial and very large dwellings. However, as a key sector for energy consumption, in the near future, residential building may also demand development of micro capacity (1-5kW) CHP systems or more commonly called micro-CHP systems. It is believed that residential micro-CHP offers significant benefits: (i) to energy suppliers – improved profitability, customer retention etc., (ii) to household – reduced energy bills, and (iii) to society – reduced CO2 emissions, reduced primary energy consumption, avoidance of central plant and network construction. The research is currently carried out to develop a 5KW MicroCHP for application in the small dwellings. The focus of the research is:
- Development of understanding of the energy management of small residential settings.
- Mathematical model for design and dispatch (operation) optimisation of the microCHP
- Control Strategies of MicroCHP with the domestic boilers to meet variable CHP demands.
Project:
- Development of a 5KW microCHP System. (Nicola O Meara and Barra Murad- Students)
4. Low carbon lean combustion strategies
The lean premixed combustion is recently recognised as promising strategy to achieve clean combustion in practical devices such as gas turbine combustors, internal combustion engines, domestic and power plant burners. The objective of the strategy is to successfully achieve impressive goals of reduction in greenhouse gases- carbon dioxide (10%) and reduction in nitrous oxide (60%).To implement this strategy, researchers and developers need an accurate and detailed data of the fundamental characteristics of premixed combustion. But, generation of an accurate premixed combustion data under realistic physical conditions of temperature, pressure, fuel/air ratio and dilution relevant to the practical combustion devices is a very challenging. It requires development of advanced techniques and tools for the accurate measurements and analysis premixed combustion. The focus of the research on Low Carbon combustion strategies is on the following areas:
- Development of the new laminar burning velocity technique from closed vessels;
- Developing lean oxy-fuel combustion strategies for emerging fuels such as Syngas & biofuels.
