The objectives of the experimental group are threefold: (1) acquiring kinetic insights into important high-temperature processes; (2) providing high-quality data for model validation; and, (3) addressing industrial applications, such as development and testing of oxy-combustion systems. Work is focused on high-temperature processes, specifically controlled and uncontrolled fires and the combustion and gasification of fossil fuels: waste, black liquor, biomass, and other opportunity fuels. Much of the research on combustion and gasification concerns the formation and control of pollutants, including SOx, NOx, fine particles, black carbon, and air toxics. The group applies state-of-the-art diagnostic techniques and analytical methods to the study of high-temperature processes, which are critical to the achieving the group's objectives.
Advanced power generation technologies
- Boilers, CFB, and stoker studies
- Chemical looping combustion
- Gasification
- Coal oxy-fuel combustion
- Gas oxy-fuel combustion for CO2 capture
Biomass combustion and opportunity fuels
- Biomass co-firing
- Black liquor gasification
- Waste products as fuel
Carbon management technologies
- Carbon sequestration
- Chemical looping combustion
- Gasification
- Oil shale & oil sands utilization with CO2 management
- Coal oxy-fuel combustion
- Gas oxy-fuel combustion for CO2 capture
- Mineralization: Postcombustion Capture
Fires and explosions
- Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions (C-SAFE)
- Hazard classification
- Heat flux in open pool fires
Industrial flares
Industrial heaters
- Boilers
- Furnaces
- Process heaters
- Flameless oxy-gas process heaters for efficient CO2 capture
- Steam Generators
- Stokers
In-situ thermal processing of coal, oil shale, and oil sands
- Liquid fuels from in-situ thermal processing of coal, oil shale, and oil sands
- Synthetic natural gas from in-situ thermal processing
Managing Environmental Impacts of Energy Development
- Aerosol formation
- Air toxics
- Biomass and opportunity fuels
- Carbon sequestration
- Effect of oil shale processing on water compositions
- Fuel additives for diesel and gas-turbine engines
- Analysis of CO2 Emissions from Unconventional Fossil Fuel Resources
- New approaches to treat produced water
- NOx
- Water management in the Uinta Basin
- Basin scale simulation of oil shale & oil sands development
Model and software development
- Arches LES simulation tool
- Hybrid thread/MPI parallel simulation software frameworks
- Model discovery and dimension reduction techniques for multiscale processes
- Multidimensional adaptive regression
- Software design paradigms for adaptive, multiscale simulation
- Exascale Engineering Software
- Radiation modeling
Verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification
- Flame ignition and stability
- Heat flux in open pool fires
- Turbulent buoyant helium plume
- Laminar buoyant helium plume
- Predictivity for CO2 Capture Deployment