New technique lays the foundation for greener transport fuels and next generation engines. Reducing the greenhouse gases (GHG) released from the production and burning of fuels like diesel and gasoline — significant contributors to climate change — is a huge challenge facing the transportation industry. Aamir Farooq and colleagues from KAUST’s Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), working with the Fuel Technology Team at Saudi Aramco, used an innovative technique for testing the properties of light naphtha, a fully blended, low-octane, highly paraffinic fuel. Farooq explains that this technique could open the potential for more advanced engines to run on fuels that release fewer GHG emissions.

The Clean Combustion Research Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Deanna Lacoste has been appointed as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, effective from November 1, 2016. Dr. Lacoste has been an important member of the CCRC since 2014 when she joined as a Research Scientist. During this period, her research work was mainly on plasma-assisted combustion, optical diagnostics, and control of thermoacoustic instabilities. Prof. Lacoste will now focus her studies on plasma-assisted detonation, control of thermoacoustic instabilities at high pressure, and control of flame extinction and ignition by surfaces.

The Clean Combustion Research Center is very pleased to announce the appointment of yet another exemplary faculty - Prof. Gaetano Magnotti. He joined the Mechanical Engineering program as an Assistant Professor on the 28th of October. Prof. Magnotti’s primary research interests are in developing and applying advanced laser diagnostics and imaging to turbulent and supersonic combustion. He is the principal investigator of the Advanced Diagnostics laboratory and he is affiliated with the Clean Combustion Research Center. Professor Magnotti’s group focuses on the development of quantitative, advanced laser diagnostics for high pressure combustion and on their application to the investigation of fundamental combustion phenomena relevant to the design of next-generation, cleaner, and more efficient gas turbines and IC engines.

​CCRC PhD Student, Nour Atef won the first place at the poster competition held as part of the 24th International Symposium on Gas Kinetics and Related Phenomena held at the University of York between 17 to 21July. Her poster which was selected from more than a 100 entries presented her work on understanding gasoline fuel combustion using a combination of experiments and computational simulations. She is currently a PhD student in the Chemical and Biological and Engineering Program under Prof. Mani Sarathy's Combustion and Pyrolysis Chemistry Group.

A clearer understanding of how flame is affected by electric fields paves the way for advanced electrically assisted combustion technology. Flame is a complex and dynamic phenomenon involving a constant flow of negatively and positively charged ions and electrons. For decades, researchers have attempted to exploit this charged property to control and stabilize flame, theoretically leading to lower emissions and more complete energy utilization. Applying an electric field that interacts with the charged particles is the most obvious means of achieving this type of flame control, but this approach has met with mixed success.

A better understanding of fuel ignition processes in internal combustion engines could help break new barriers in fuel efficiency and emission reductions. A third oxidation mechanism has been added to the model of hydrocarbon auto-ignition to fill a longstanding gap in what we know about ignition delay in internal combustion engines. The new model of auto-ignition developed at KAUST is expected to help engine designers to refine engine timing to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. The combustion of hydrocarbon fuels in a spark-ignition engine does not happen instantaneously. The fuel burns over the course of milliseconds, involving various oxygen-consuming reactions triggered by heat, pressure and the spark source.

A complex computational model provides a more accurate description of soot formation. ​A computational framework that accurately predicts the formation of particulates and soot when burning hydrocarbon fuels has been developed by researchers at KAUST and an international research team. The model takes into account the crucial contributions of larger hydrocarbon molecules. “These have often been neglected in previous studies,” said Hong Im from the KAUST Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC). He noted that consideration of these molecules is essential for accurate prediction of soot levels.

Precise rate constants could provide high-fidelity combustion models for cleaner and more efficient fuels.​ The performance of future engines could soon be predicted with greater accuracy thanks to research by KAUST scientists to find high-efficiency and low-emission solutions in the fight against climate change. Engine design and optimization depend on combustion chemistry models consisting of multiple elementary reactions. In particular, reactions between hydrocarbons and hydroxyl (OH) radicals play a central role in the breakup of fuel components during combustion.

Silicon microelectronics and biomedical fields could benefit from a safe and cost-effective way to synthesize nanoparticles. A thin, pancake-shaped plasma cloud formed at oil–water interfaces can be used to synthesize exotic nanomaterials.

Simple two-component mixtures are good surrogates for studying the ignition properties of next-generation gasolines. A collaboration between KAUST and Saudi Aramco scientists to test future fuels could bring a new era of highly efficient gasoline engines.

We are honored to announce that Prof. Mani Sarathy, Associate Director of Clean Combustion Research Center is one among 6 others from KAUST who have made it to the 2017 Highly Cited Researcher list in the category of Engineering!

Congratulations to Nawaf AlGhamdi, Mayadah AlHashem and Abdullah AlRamadan on winning 1st place at the Middle Eastern Process Engineering Conference (MEPEC) technical debates held on 11 October 2017. MEPEC is the premier conference for oil and gas companies in the region.

Congratulations to Fethi Khaled, PhD Student in the mechanical engineering program, this months' recipient of the Physical Science and Engineering Division's Outstanding PhD Student Award.

Fethi works in the Chemical Kinetics & Laser Sensors Lab (which is affiliated with the Clean Combustion Research Center) under the supervision of Professor Aamir Farooq. He studies the science of combustion and investigates how fuels burn with the ultimate goal of developing high-efficiency and cleaner-burning fuels and engines.

Insight into the thermal decomposition of a potential fuel additive shows it could promote cleaner and more efficient combustion. An additive for conventional fuel comprised of oxygenated organic compounds could help reduce the release of pollutants into the atmosphere during the combustion of fossil fuels. Researchers from KAUST have now established how these potential additives decompose under combustion-relevant conditions. Selecting a suitable additive for a fuel blend hinges on a good understanding of its kinetic behavior under combustion conditions.

New 3D visualizations that reveal how flames respond to electric fields could help improve combustion efficiency and reduce pollution. The ability to precisely control flames could lead to greater energy efficiency and fewer harmful emissions from transport and industry. Flames contain charged ions and electrons, which can be manipulated using electricity. KAUST researchers have now produced the first detailed 3D visualizations of ionic winds flowing from a flame in response to both direct (DC) and alternating (AC) electric fields.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Mani Sarathy has accepted the position of Associate Director of the Clean Combustion Research Center(CCRC). He will focus primarily on three areas; enhancing and quantifying technology translation to industry, student recruiting and outreach, and building mutually-beneficial inter-center research programs. ​“Our center continues to enjoy a very positive reputation both internally within KAUST and externally to the combustion community. With Prof. Mani’s energy, enthusiasm, and creativity, our reputation will surely increase further.", said Prof. William Roberts, Director, CCRC.

​Mayadah Al Hashem, a Ph.D. Student from the Clean Combustion Research Center, KAUST has won the first place in the national level of the IET Present Around The World (PATW) Competition. Her presentation titled "Revolutionizing Black and White Printing", explained her patented concept of inducing a pyrolysis reaction to carbonize the surface of the paper. The process exposes the paper to radiative heat from a laser that discolors the surface to a darker shade. She provided the proof-of-concept by showing them images of the samples and explaining the variables she studied in the process.

The Clean Combustion Research Center was honored to host the 7th Annual Meeting of the Saudi Arabian Section of Combustion Institute​​. More than 150 combustion researchers from all over Saudi Arabia and the surrounding regions came in to KAUST to discuss all matters related to combustion science.

The Clean Combustion Research Center was honored to have Prof. Jonas Moeck working in our labs, in collaboration with Prof. Deanna Lacoste and her team of researchers on thermo-acoustic instabilities and flame dynamics this month.

Representatives from the Clean Combustion Research Center visited Saudi Aramco's Fuel Technology, Research and Development Division (FTR &DD) to review the progress of their collaborative project 'FUELCOM' on 15 and 16 March, 2017.