Project: « FREE – Flexible eneRgy vEctors of the futurE » (2016-2018),
Funding: ENGIE
In Collaboration with VUB, ULB, UGENT, UMONS
Véronique Dias and Maxime Pochet
The project aims at optimizing, at the level of a residential city district, the production, the storage and the use of different fuels derived from excess renewable electricity with a focus on the storage system design and sizing and on the efficient energy restitution from the stored fuels through combined heat and power facilities. In this study, different district and renewable scenarios are considered and optimal chemical storage solutions are proposed. In each scenario, the energy costs for the production of each fuel, for the storage and for the restitution into electrical and thermal energy are considered. This applied study on chemical storage underlines that the combination of these fuels can sustain a large part of all the electric needs of a district.
The principle of the chemical storage is to use excess electricity to produce hydrogen by electrolysis of water. Hydrogen can then be stored directly or further converted into methane (from hydrogen methanation if CO2 is available, e.g. from a carbon capture facility), methanol (again if CO2 is available), and/or ammonia (by an electrochemical process). These different fuels are stored in liquid or gaseous form, and thus with different energy densities, according to their physical and chemical natures.
In times of shortage of electrical, these chemical compounds are used for the production of electricity and heat through a specifically designed system. The four different fuels having different storage properties and optimal time frames, any district would need to resort to several of them, hence the need for a multifuel restitution system. Experiments are being carried out to use an Homogeneous-Charge Compression-Ignition (HCCI) engine for the purpose since it allows both fuel-flexibility and efficiency. http://burn-research.be/project/free/
Project: « Kinetic model for hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds» (2009-2016)
Funding: Service Public de Wallonie
Véronique Dias
The project is focused on the study the combustion of various hydrocarbons or oxygenated compounds, which are considered as alternative fuels or additives, in laminar premixed flat flames.
These flames are stabilized on a burner at low pressure and analysed by GC, in order to evaluate pollutants formation and concentration.
The aim of the work is to build a complete reaction mechanism, named “UCL” taking into account the formation and the consumption of species detected in these flames. This mechanism will allow us to obtain precious information on the degrees and the rates of reactants conversion, the formation pathways of pollutants, the effects of additives, etc… This kinetic model will then be applied to industrial processes and devices (engines, furnaces, boilers…) to define their best operating conditions.
The current kinetic mechanism developed at UCL has so far been able to predict the combustion of permanent gases such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethylene, propane or propene, the combustion of oxygenated species such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, propanal, methanol, ethanol, acetic acid, methylal, ethylal, water vapor or formic acid, and the combustion of heavy condensable species such as benzene and phenol. https://github.com/VeroniqueDias/UCLouvain-Mechanism