This paper presents the experimental assessment of a free elastic-piston compressor (FEPC) equipped with a separated combustion chamber. The FEPC is a proposed device that utilizes combustion of a hydrocarbon fuel to compress air into a high-pressure supply tank, thus potentially serving as a portable power supply candidate for untethered pneumatic systems of human-scale power output. The desig...

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an advanced combustion concept that is developed as an alternative to diesel engines with higher thermal efficiency along with ultralow NOx and PM emissions. To study the performance of this novel technique, experiments were performed in a two cylinder engine, in which one cylinder is modified to operate in HCCI mode while other cylinder operate...

Combustion system development in power generation is discussed ranging from the pre-environmental era in which the objectives were complete combustion with a minimum of excess air and the capability of scale up to increased boiler unit performances, through the environmental era (1970–), in which reduction of combustion generated pollution was gaining increasing importance, to the present and n...

All these gases are addressed by the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC Guidelines). The technical approach in estimating CO2 emissions is relatively simple and the accuracy level high since the CO2 emission factors are mainly a function of the fuel properties, which are generally well addressed by most countries. The non-CO2 emissions however are closely...

In this paper we propose a framework for studying fundamental limitations in the control of thermoacoustic instabilities described by nonlinear models. More generally, the framework applies to general interconnections of lightly damped linear oscillators and nonlinear static nonlinearities of saturation type driven by broad-band Gaussian disturbances. The key concept is to replace the static no...

The need to control exhaust emissions from stationary power sources is dictated by environmental regulations that limit the amount of smoke (particulates), sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen or NOx that can be exhausted into the atmosphere. In areas where atmospheric pollution is a serious concern, as in the Los Angeles basin, very low emission levels are dema...

Control of Particulate matter (PM) emission is a key pollution issue affecting the environment and human health, especially sizes that range below 10 μm. The objective of this work is to develop a dust flow separator type electrostatic precipitator (DFS-ESP) for the effective control of fine particulate matter emission from natural gas combustion. An experiment was conducted for natural gas com...

Combustion in the cylinder of a spark ignition engine, particularly under low load conditions, is subject to cycleby-cycle variations due to factors such as mixture quality and quantity and internal exhaust gas recirculation. The major result of this phenomenon is an increase in the variability of indicated engine torque at a given engine operating point. Automotive control problems dealing wit...