Future Power Systems
The FPS Group researches new combustion and energy conversion technologies, alternative fuels and hydrogen as means to create clean, efficient and sustainable power sources for propulsion and stationary use.
Current Research Activities
The Future Power Systems Group is currently working towards the first year on the SERVE program - Flex-diesel Engines with Sustainable Bio- fuels for Clean and Efficient On- and Off-Road Vehicle Engines.
The project aims to provide technical solutions that will allow the diesel engine to operate with a diverse range of renewable fuels and it has two major objectives: 1) to identify the changes required by the engine system (including aftertreatment) to run on blends containing up to 30% of a variety of both generations bio-diesel fuels; 2) to develop novel 'Flex-diesel' technologies involving onboard pre- and after-treatment to maintain optimized engine performance and emissions with increasing percentages of fully sustainable bio-fuels and thermal management.
This project is funded by the UK Government and the Technology Strategy Board (formerly known as DTI - Department of Trade and Industry) in collaboration with Jaguar Cars. Total Funding £2.12 million.
Current Research Activities
The Future Power Systems Group is currently working towards the first year on the SERVE program - Flex-diesel Engines with Sustainable Bio- fuels for Clean and Efficient On- and Off-Road Vehicle Engines.
The project aims to provide technical solutions that will allow the diesel engine to operate with a diverse range of renewable fuels and it has two major objectives: 1) to identify the changes required by the engine system (including aftertreatment) to run on blends containing up to 30% of a variety of both generations bio-diesel fuels; 2) to develop novel 'Flex-diesel' technologies involving onboard pre- and after-treatment to maintain optimized engine performance and emissions with increasing percentages of fully sustainable bio-fuels and thermal management.
This project is funded by the UK Government and the Technology Strategy Board (formerly known as DTI - Department of Trade and Industry) in collaboration with Jaguar Cars. Total Funding £2.12 million.
Impact of DMF on Engine Performance and Emissions as a New Generation of Sustainable
Biofuel
This project is funded by EPSRC . Total Budget £0.520 million.
2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) is likely to become a promising sustainable biofuel with the advent of
novel and efficient methods recently developed in the US for making it from biomass, but there is
very limited knowledge about its impact on the environment. For the engine community, little is
known about its combustion and emission characteristics, especially about the speciation of nonregulated
emissions from its combustion in engines. This project aims to investigate the
outstanding issues of DMF as base fuel, by the studies through developing and validating the
spray, combustion, emissions and engine models and by conducting systematic experiments
using advanced methodologies including CFD, optical diagnostics and exhaust gas speciation
using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) alongside the on-line GCMS. It is
anticipated that this collaborative project will provide a platform for the 3 groups of researchers
listed above to work very closely to utilise the unique expertise at each side and contribute to the
team work on the basis of much increased communications and information exchange. The
know-how acquired in this project will be of direct benefit to the UK and Chinese motor industries
and academia. The project outcome will help to increase the market size of British and China's
biofuel industries and will thus have impact on the development of the UK and China economy by
increasing the opportunities for employment and profitability of agriculture and obviously will
contribute to the reduction of carbon footprint of fuels for transportation.
Partners for this project are:
- University of Birmingham
- Jaguar and Land Rover
- Green Fuels
- Innospec Inc
This project is funded by the UK Government through the Foresight Vehicle Program in
collaboration with Jaguar Cars. Total Budget £2.359 million.
The project aims to develop a clean and efficient powertrain system centred on a supercharged
homogeneous charge compression ignition engine with on-board fuel reformer and thermal
management.
This project targets the extension of the range of operation of gasoline HCCI both at high and low
loads by combining: boosting, low temperature fuel reforming, combined exhaust after-treatment
and total thermal management.
Benefits:
The direct beneficiary will be the UK vehicle manufacturing companies by offering new
opportunities to achieve the future legal requirements on emissions (including CO2) and also
reducing the energy consumption.
Achieved objectives:
1.The project has demonstrated that the combination of HCCI (Homogeneous Charge
Compression Ignition) and Thermal Management can be used to increase he upper
operating range by using an intercooler and supercharging whereas the lower boundary
can be extended using the combined effect of heating and throttling. Furthermore an
HCCI control strategy has been proposed aiming to primarily to reduce emissions and in
particular NOx and secondary HC.
2.A mathematical model describing the CHASE Thermal Management system has been
developed and verified. Using this model one can operate and predict the behaviour of
the Thermal Management system enabling the extension of the operating envelope and
investigation of the various configurations in the HCCI operating region.
3. The system model can run in real time and can easily be implemented for a forward
predicting control strategy. In addition this model is used for predicting the boundary
conditions for further and detailed modelling investigations such as in CFD computations.
Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition
Alternative fuels: biodiesel, ethanol, biogas, natural gas, hydrogen
Analysis of Emissions & Particulates
Future Engines & Fuels Lab:
The new Future Engines and Fuels Laboratory at the University of Birmingham’s Department of Mechanical Engineering was opened on 18 January 2007 by Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer), Professor Mike Cruise. Before the launch Dr Mike Richardson, Manager of Jaguar Research at Jaguar Land Rover presented a lecture on “Sustainable Mobility”.
The new laboratory was refurbished with funding from the University of over £800,000 and is supported by industrial partners Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford, Johnson Matthey and Shell. The facilities comprise 7 test beds, 2 single cylinder research engines, 1 Ford optical engine with laser diagnostics, 2 multi-cylinder Jaguar and Land Rover prototype engines, 1 Formula Student racing engine and 1 teaching engine, along with a unique fuel test cell equipped with 2 GC mass-spectrometers. One more Jaguar/Ford engine test bed is under construction and an additional dedicated Biofuel engine test bed is being prepared.
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