Detailed experimental study of low-carbon fuel injection and combustion in marine engines

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We have a vacancy for a PhD at Department of Marine Technology   to join the Marine Machinery group.

The main topic of the PhD is the detailed experimental investigation of low carbon, so called “green” fuels, for use in marine internal combustion engines.

In particular the PhD project will focus on the fuel and air mixing process for multi-fuel concepts, in the form of detailed examination of the fuel injection and spray formation process, using high speed imaging techniques to characterize the injection and ignition process.

As society and the global economy makes the transition to a low carbon society, industrial sectors are examining which technologies and energy carriers should be invested in now and which ones are likely to be taken up in the future. Across most of the industries, there is no clear single winner. The marine sector is one such industry, with a number of options currently being examined, including batteries, zero carbon green fuels, synthetic fuels, biofuels, fuel cells and even sails seem to be making a comeback.

The large variety of vehicles in the marine sector, means that one technology is not likely to be applicable to all, and while for some vessels, batteries seem like a sensible option, for larger, deep sea, long range vessels, it is unlikely that the internal combustion engine (ICE) is going to be displaced any time soon.

If the use of large marine internal combustion engines is here for some time, then it is critical that new, low or zero carbon fuels must be used, and these new fuels must have favourable operational and emissions characteristics. There are three fuels that are currently gaining some attention in this area, hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol. The ammonia and methanol may be thought of as hydrogen vectors, essentially viewed as a molecularly bound method to store and transport hydrogen, rather than relying on large, expensive, heavy, complex cryogenic or high-pressure systems. What’s more, the future of some shipping may be multi-fuel, with the requirement to be able to combine or switch between fuels, depending on availability and cost, this may be described as a fuel- flexible, dual- or multi- fuel engine.

To optimize the use of the new fuels, providing operational information for fuel switching, component design, emissions control and the development of detailed simulations, a deeper understanding of the fuels utilization in the engine is required. With the engines on the larger vessels (where the ICE will be the most difficult to fully displace) likely to utilize some form of direct injection (fuel is injected directly into the engine combustion chamber), fuel injection and fuel spray formation become critical topics of research to achieve this deeper understanding.

This position will conduct fundamental experimental and numerical tests of fuel injections and fuel sprays using a large optical combustion chamber with very high-speed imaging. The fuels of interest will include (but not limited to) ammonia and methanol. The project will be used to develop new injection equipment, new injection strategies and as validated input for numerical spray simulations for fuel-flexible, multi- fuel, marine engines.

The successful candidate will conduct the project over a 3-year period under the supervision of Associate Professor David Emberson.