Recent developments in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) that electrochemically oxidize hydrocarbon fuels to produce electrical power without first reforming them to H2 are described. First, the operating principles of SOFCs are reviewed, along with a description of state-of-the-art SOFC designs. This is followed by a discussion of the concepts and procedures used in the synthesis of direct-oxidati...

The push toward the miniaturization of electro-mechanical devices and the resulting need for micro-power generation (milli-watts to watts) with low-weight, long-life devices has led to the recent development of the field of micro-scale combustion. The concept behind this new field is that since batteries have low specific energy, and liquid hydrocarbon fuels have a very high specific energy, a ...

One approach to reducing the costs of advanced biofuel production from cellulosic biomass is to engineer a single microorganism to both digest plant biomass and produce hydrocarbons that have the properties of petrochemical fuels. Such an organism would require pathways for hydrocarbon production and the capacity to secrete sufficient enzymes to efficiently hydrolyze cellulose and hemicellulose...

At subcritical pressures, atomization devices in chemical-propulsion systems must ensure proper rupture of the liquid volume through aerodynamic shearing and homogeneous dispersion of the liquid droplets in the combustion chamber. The gas environment in the combustor is typically hot as a result of the heat released by chemical reactions, with part of its enthalpy being employed in vaporizing t...

−Monitoring parameters were evaluated for a bioventing process that was designed to treat soils contaminated with diesel fuel. Statistical analyses were conducted to evaluate correlations between total petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations in the contaminated soil and physico-chemical parameters of soil such as microbial counts, dehydrogenase activity, and n-alkane/isoprenoid ratio. The correlat...

Liquid CBN (carbon-boron-nitrogen) hydrogen-storage materials such as 3-methyl-1,2-BN-cyclopentane have the advantage of being easily accessible for use in current liquid-fuel infrastructure. To develop practical liquid CBN hydrogen-storage materials, it is of great importance to understand the reaction pathways of hydrogenation/dehydrogenation in the liquid phase, which are difficult to discov...

Coal, which is usually land plant in origin, occurs in many oil-producing basins. Microscopically, coal consists of various macerals (liptinite, vitrinite, and inertinite). The generative potential of coal reflects the hydrocarbon potential of the composing macerals (Kelly et al., 1985). Although most coals consist of predominantly vitrinite, some contain significant amounts (>20% of total mace...

Abstract The paper presents a comparative analysis of experimental data on combustion liquid hydrocarbon fuels in the presence superheated steam two designs developed burners. By example diesel fuel burnt spray burner it is shown that lower values nitrogen oxide contents exhaust gases are achieved comparison with an evaporative burner. At that, content carbon monoxide some regimes for minimum t...

For the effective production of hydrocarbon liquid fuel in the hydrocracking of the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) product, the catalytic performance of Pt-loaded catalysts with low Pt content was investigated using an autoclave at 250 °C, an initial H2 pressure of 0.5 MPa, and a reaction time of 1 h. A screening study using Pt-loaded catalysts with a Pt content of 0.1 wt. % indicated that zeolite suppor...

In recent years, concerns over the impact of internal combustion engine hydrocarbon emissions on the environment have prompted tighter regulation on allowable emission levels. While much work has been done on reducing hydrocarbon emissions after they have entered the exhaust stream, less direct monitoring of the emission sources has been performed. An optically accessible four-stroke internal c...