Carbon distribution and multi-criteria decision analysis of flexible waste biomass smouldering processing technologies.

Waste biomass treatment is a globally urgent matter which highly relates to environmental quality and human health. Here, a flexible suite of smouldering-based waste biomass processing technologies is developed and four processing strategies: (a) full smouldering, (b) partial smouldering, (c) full smouldering with a flame, and (d) partial smouldering with a flame, are proposed. The gaseous, liquid, and solid products of each strategy are quantified under various airflow rates.

Effective reduction of roadside air pollution with botanical biofiltration.

Currently no sustainable, economical and scalable systems have been developed for the direct removal of roadside air pollutants at their source. Here we present a simple and effective air filtering technology: botanical biofiltration, and the first field assessment of three different botanical biofilter designs for the filtration of traffic associated air pollutants - NO, O and PM - from roadside ambient air in Sydney, Australia. Over two six month research campaigns, we show that all of the tested systems filtered NO, O and PM with average single pass removal efficiencies of up to 71.

Effect of cold start on engine performance and emissions from diesel engines using IMO-Compliant distillate fuels.

Emissions from ships at berth are small compared to the total ship emissions; however, they are one of the main contributors to pollutants in the air of densely-populated areas, consequently heavily affecting public health. This is due to auxiliary marine engines being used to generate electric power and steam for heating and providing services. The present study has been conducted on an engine representative of a marine auxiliary, which was a heavy duty, six-cylinder, turbocharged and after-cooled engine with a high pressure common rail injection system.

Effect of sulphur and vanadium spiked fuels on particle characteristics and engine performance of auxiliary diesel engines.

Particle emission characteristics and engine performance were investigated from an auxiliary, heavy duty, six-cylinder, turbocharged and after-cooled diesel engine with a common rail injection system using spiked fuels with different combinations of sulphur (S) and vanadium (V) spiking. The effect of fuel S content on both particle number (PN) and mass (PM) was clearly observed in this study. Higher PN and PM were observed for fuels with higher S contents at all engine load conditions.

Application of multicriteria decision making methods to compression ignition engine efficiency and gaseous, particulate, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Compression ignition (CI) engine design is subject to many constraints, which present a multicriteria optimization problem that the engine researcher must solve. In particular, the modern CI engine must not only be efficient but must also deliver low gaseous, particulate, and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions so that its impact on urban air quality, human health, and global warming is minimized. Consequently, this study undertakes a multicriteria analysis, which seeks to identify alternative fuels, injection technologies, and combustion strategies that could potentially satisfy these CI engine design constraints.

Particle emissions, volatility, and toxicity from an ethanol fumigated compression ignition engine.

Particle emissions, volatility, and the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were investigated for a pre-Euro I compression ignition engine to study the potential health impacts of employing ethanol fumigation technology. Engine testing was performed in two separate experimental campaigns with most testing performed at intermediate speed with four different load settings and various ethanol substitutions. A scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) was used to determine particle size distributions, a volatilization tandem differential mobility analyzer (V-TDMA) was used to explore particle volatility, and a new profluorescent nitroxide probe, BPEAnit, was used to investigate the potential toxicity of particles.