Grant: Alliance Grants

The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to develop knowledge and technology that allows for reducing emissions from an aerospace propulsion-related gas turbine model combustor by fuel doping with graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots. Although such carbonaceous nanomaterials have been previously used for understanding/improving characteristics of droplet combustion, their utilization for decreasing emissions is not investigated. First, a variety of synthesis procedures will be implemented to generate and characterize stable suspensions of the doped graphene oxide and quantum dots in jet A, diesel, and biodiesel. Then, the combustion chemistry of these fuels will be studied using a packed-bed combustor which will be monitored using thermometers and a gas analyzer. This is followed by more engineering relevant tests that involve Particle Image Velocimetry and emission measurements of spray reacting flow of the doped fuel in a gas turbine model combustor. Finally, the collected emission and velocimetry data along with the nanomaterials synthesis procedures and characterization data will be used to develop novel machine learning algorithms that allow for predicting emissions from the gas turbine model combustor. The utility of the doping with the graphene-based nanomaterials for reducing emissions allows the first industrial partner (ZEN Graphene Solutions) to pursue potentials for marketing the doped fuel. The machine learning algorithm will help the development of software by the second industrial partner (Machinery Analytics) that allows monitoring operation health of engineering equipment. In addition to the industrial partners, the proposed project involves one Master's student, 2 postdocs, and three professors (from both Okanagan and Vancouver campuses of UBC). All professors will ensure fair and inclusive recruitment of the personnel, and in all communications, the unceded territories of British Columbia at which the proposed research is to be conducted will be acknowledged. The total proposed budget is $331,500. The industrial partners will contribute $111,000 in-kind contributions in the form of the salaries of staff, raw material, as well as software and cloud computation space.