A review on plasma combustion of fuel in internal combustion engines

Abstract

Summary In recent years, new ways of improving the combustion efficiency of fuel during gas turbine operations have been developed. The most significant has been the application of plasma technology for the combustion of fuel in gas turbine operations. Plasma is formed when gas is exposed to either high temperature or high‐voltage electricity. This technology is very promising and has proven to enhance the performance of gas turbines and reduce toxic emissions. Recent studies have shown the use of different types of plasma applications in gas turbine operations such as plasma torch, filamentary discharge, and nanosecond pulse discharge, whose results show that plasma technology has great potential in improving flame stabilization, the fuel/air mixing ratio, and flash point values of these fuels. These findings and advances have further provided new opportunities in the development of efficient plasma discharges for practical uses in plasma combustion of fuel for gas turbine operations. This article is a comprehensive overview of the advances and blind spots in the knowledge of plasma combustion of fuel during internal combustion engine operations. This review also focuses on applications, methods, and experimental results in plasma combustion of fuel in gas turbines.

Plasma‐activated methane partial oxidation reaction to oxygenate platform chemicals over Fe, Mo, Pd and zeolite catalysts

“…20,33-37 At higher energy input, thermodynamically more stable products, such as CO, H 2 , CO 2 , and H 2 O, are predominantly formed. 49 It can be observed from Figure 3 that the main gas product is syngas with an approximate ratio of 1:1 with some additional CO 2 , which is comparable with literature. This is the reason why most researchers use room-temperature or cooled DBD for this process, as lower neutral gas temperature seems to yield more oxygenate products.…”

“…35,47 The oxygen content is also restricted by the explosion limit of methane/oxygen mixtures, which are explosive at 39% O 2 -as was experimentally demonstrated, 48 reactor explosions may occur, since plasma can act as a fuel ignition source. 49 It can be observed from Figure 3 that the main gas product is syngas with an approximate ratio of 1:1 with some additional CO 2 , which is comparable with literature. 44,50 The syngas selectivity is not clearly dependent on the total gas flow, but the H 2 /CO ratio increases by increasing the ratio between CH 4 /O 2 .…”

Study on the electrical response of small ethanol‐air diffusion flame under the uniform electric field

“…In recent years, the promising technologies such as electric field and plasma assisting combustion have attracted the attention of researchers. [1][2][3] And those technologies are studied to improve the combustion process, especially to enhance flame stability, 4,5 change flame propagation 6 and apply ion-current method. 7 Nowadays, the demand for miniaturization of equipment is increasing.…”

Experimental study of pulsed microwave discharges at pressures ranging over five orders of magnitude

“…In the last few decades, the need for a sustainable combustion led to numerous experimental and kinetic modeling studies. The concept of plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) has been suggested and developed [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The use of different type of discharges was investigated including nanosecond pulsed discharges, gliding arcs, microwave, corona, DBDs and plasma torches [8].…”

“…The concept of plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) has been suggested and developed [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The use of different type of discharges was investigated including nanosecond pulsed discharges, gliding arcs, microwave, corona, DBDs and plasma torches [8]. This interest is stimulated by a wide range of potential applications: ignition of fuel-air mixtures at moderate gas densities and high velocity gas flows, including ignition in supersonic flows, combustion sustaining or enhancement by plasma at atmospheric pressure, stimulation of combustion of lean mixtures (mixtures where the fuel-to-oxidizer ratio is less than unity).…”