Plasma Assisted Combustion

Louis Rosocha, LANL, P-24

It is well known that applying an electric field to a flame can affect its propagation speed, stability, and combustion chemistry. External electrodes, arc discharges, plasma jets, and corona discharges have been employed to allow combustible gas mixtures to operate outside their flammability limits or to increase combustion speed. Electrical discharges can create non-thermal plasmas (NTPs) that Œactivate, fuel or fuel-oxidizer (e.g., air) mixtures that feed internal combustion engines, furnaces, and other combustion devices. We have invented a promising, new NTP technique that pre-treats fuels just prior to combustion. This patent-pending technology cracks the molecules of typical hydrocarbon fuels into lower molecular weight fragments, and highly reactive free-radical and excited-state species. Such activated fragments are capable of burning faster, more completely and cleanly, and with reduced NOx production. In preliminary work on propane, the ability to burn in extremely lean burn modes and increased flame stability has been demonstrated, with accompanied combustion efficiency enhancement in excess of 50%. This talk will describe our theory of combustion enhancement with an SDP, the plasma physics/gaseous electronics and plasma chemistry of an SDP, and a description of experimental apparatus and results on combustion enhancement in propane.

The P/T Colloquium is
typically held each
Thursday, 3:45–5:00 PM.
Refreshments are served
at 3:15 PM.