Combustion in the post-fossile era: Bluetifuel
CBOne and its partners, FH JOANNEUM and P&P Industries proudly present:
Bluetifuel stands for "Blue flames for low-emission combustion using non-carbon eco-fuels". This three-year project is about the best possible use of future carbon-free fuels. The focus is put on the sustainable energy sector. Our mission is to design the thermal facilities of the future, highly digitalised, to guarantee a safe, efficient and emission-free combustion of non-carbon ecofuels.
Triggered by the predominant problem of climate change, caused by high concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere, and by the additional scarcity of fossil fuels, new paths for eco-fuels have been taken. A technology called "Power-to-X" provides promising energy storage for renewable resources. Excess electricity from wind, solar or hydro power can be used to generate a non-conventional eco-fuel, which is stored in the existing European gas and oil infrastructure. This climate-neutral fuel can be used to cover the residual load or the heat demand of a country.
In this project we are especially concerned with carbon-free eco-fuels, which burn without any CO2, such as hydrogen H2, ammonia NH3, compounds such as hydrogen sulfide H2S and any mixture of these substances, which mostly occur as by-products in different procedures/processes and burn without any CO2 generation, but are not yet used for industrial thermal utilization. The reason for the lack of thermal utilization of these substances is, on the one hand, due to certain new types of safety risks and, on the other hand, due to the high fluctuation of the composition of these fuels, as impurities can occur.
Within the framework of the project "Bluetifuel", the consortium consisting of Combustion Bay One e.U., FH JOANNEUM GmbH and P&P Industries AG intends to develop a completely digitalised combustion technology that works on the basis of precisely controlled, forced flame turbulence. Due to the controlled, increased flame activity, which can be seen by the change in flame shape and energy density, a very good mixing of the reactants takes place, which guarantees a complete burnout of the partially toxic fuel. In addition, undesirable gaseous pollutants such as nitric oxides (NOx) can be reduced to a minimum since the flame pulsation process provides the opportunity to run reliably a mixture with an otherwise unstable combustion process. Furthermore, the thermal utilization of H2S is used for the generation of sulfuric acid, so the part of process engineering is also opened up. This strategy has a high potential in terms of the best possible use of CO2-neutral eco-fuels, since a flexible, compatible and safe use of mixed or pure fuels is possible. Decisive advantages in terms of operational safety are demonstrated by the opportunity of thermal utilization of highly diluted fuel. It is a disruptive process that combines highly responsive fuel dynamics with fast measurements and fast reacting actuators. Digitization is the most important feature of the project, where measurements, decisions and actuators operate in the kilohertz range. The digital control loop includes an adaptive inlet that can track large fluctuations in the fuel’s energy content, a pulsed burner, which is the result of a previous study on the complete combustion of low-energy biogases, and the control of pollutants in the exhaust gas. The pulsed combustion process is optimized by measuring the pollutant concentration and automatic adaptation of the inlet conditions (control loop) to achieve complete combustion of the reactants and minimize the nitrogen oxide content of the exhaust gases.
In this collaborative project at low technical readiness level (approx. TRL 4) Combustion Bay One will focus on the development of the pulsed combustion and its adaptation to carbon-free eco-fuels. FH JOANNEUM will be responsible for experimental tests on laboratory scale, for the validation of the control loop and for the creation of a digital twin of the plant.
P&P Industries AG will realise a demonstrator on an industrial laboratory scale and test it in the company's own laboratory. The aim is to validate this technology for thermal power in the Megawatt range. This process is disruptive and the large-scale “Bluetifuel” burner will be first-of-a-kind. The focus of the project is to create a positive contribution to achieving the energy transition in Austria and Europe. At the end of the project a way for a safe and optimal use of carbon-free eco-fuels will be shown.
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) is entrusted with the operational handling of funding awards under the KLI.EN-FondsG of the Climate and Energy Fund Act (KLI.EN-FondsG). FFG therefore manages the contract “Bluetifuel” Nr. 881129 in the name and for the account of the Climate and Energy Fund. The funding is based on the Directive for the Promotion of Economic-Technical Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTI Directive 2015) Themen-FTI-RL of the Federal Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology (GZ BMVIT-609.986/0011- III/I2/2014) and the Federal Minister of Science, Research and Economy (GZ BMWFW-97.005/0003-C1/9/2014). We hereby wish to acknowledge all parties.
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