The Clean Combustion Research Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Thibault Guiberti is appointed as Assistant Research Professor of Mechanical Engineering as of July 2021. Prof. Guiberti joined KAUST and CCRC in 2015 as a Postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Roberts. In 2017, he became a Research Scientist and in July 2021

Dr. Xu Lu, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at CCRC, KAUST has recently been appointed as a Youth Editorial Board Member for SmartMat.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Xu Lu, has joined the Clean Combustion Research Center, KAUST as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Prof. Xu Lu's research focuses on reactor and material engineering for electrochemical CO2 conversion and long-term energy storage. He is also interested in hydrogen fuel cell, seawater electrolysis, and in-situ flow/material characterizations.

Early this year, the CCRC Student Advisory Committee (SAC) launched the Student Development Initiative in partnership with the Office of Professional Development here at KAUST. On June 15, they kickstarted this initiative by holding the virtual workshop on Discover Your Strengths by Alexandra Katakalea, Leadership and Talent Development Consultant, and Kevin Nall from the Office of Professional Development.

Experimental and numerical studies reveal the combustion properties of blended fuels at elevated pressures.

Chemical reaction modeling and combustion experiments reveal how 2-methylbutanol would behave in advanced engines.

The Clean Combustion Research Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Min Suk Cha has been hired as Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, effective from November 1, 2015.

An improved formula for a gasoline additive has been developed by researchers from KAUST and oil company Saudi Aramco. The new mixture of butanol additives reduces engine knocking, a major obstacle to improved engine performance

Simulations reveal the final moments of a fuel droplet as it combusts in a spray injection engine.

The rising costs of natural gases continue to prompt governments and industry to seek lower cost fuel alternatives. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for instance, is consuming an increasingly large portion of its own fossil fuels on energy requirements such as air conditioning and water.

The Cloudflame database is comprised of relevant scientific records published over a large span of time, which helps researchers compare their findings against eminent scholars with great ease.

Alternative fuels from traditional or non-traditional sources have a promising future in the transportation industry. Amongst these are alcohol fuels that contain anywhere from one to five or more carbon atoms. Dr. Mani Sarathy explains how they are considered promising as they can be produced by various methods, including both renewable and fossil based feedstocks.

KAUST’s Clean Combustion Research Center aims to develop technologies for future fuel formulations, more efficient engines, and new methods for power generation.

The CCRC is very pleased to announce that Prof. Robert Dibble has joined the center. He will have full time tment as Professor in the Mechanical Engineering program. Prof. Dibble will continue his research in advanced ternal combustion engines and applying optical diagnostics in difficult environments.

Dr. Robin Chrystie, a postdoctoral fellow in KAUST's Clean Combustion Research Center, worked on xploiting "chirp," an ultra-rapid scan phenomenon that occurs in onductor lasers, to produce a cutting-edge laser-based sensor.

Five years in the making, the Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC) at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) was inaugurated this week. Currently comprised of seven faculty members and a team of eighty people, including postdoctoral fellows and PhD students, the center's main mission is to conduct leading combustion research to tackle future energy and environmental challenges.

The characterization of compounds produced in combustion could lead to cleaner, more efficient power stations. Modeling the combustion of fossil fuels by KAUST researchers has helped to characterize some of the components of methane, laying the foundations for greener power generation. In energy production, incomplete combustion of fossil fuels like natural gas causes the release of air pollutants such as soot, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, which are harmful to our health and the environment. Applying an external electrical field to control the combustion process is known to reduce the formation of these pollutants, but the mechanism for this is not fully understood.

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.