6 PhD students on Metal Fuels Conversion Technology

Combustion is responsible for 80% of our current energy supply and will remain to be extremely important in future due to its extremely high power-density. However, the utilized fuels will change more and more from fossil fuels to sustainable fuels like biofuels, solar fuels and metal fuels. To understand the underlying physical and chemical processes and to control them in such a way that the processes are ultra-clean and highly efficient is highly motivating.

One of the newly concieved ways to generate energy involves rethinking the way we use metals. People deal with metals every day and it may be hard to imagine that metals can replace hydrocarbon fuels. However, recent research has indicated that there are huge opportunities for a carbon-free, sustainable energy cycle based on metal fuels, that can supply power and heat when and where needed. In order to make fast oxidation of metals possible, they should be used as small (micron-sized) particles. In that case, they generate flame structures similar to those of gaseous fuels. In a large grant supported by the European Research Council, TU/e is searching for 6 PhD students who, together, will develop a sound fundamental understanding of such flames from first principles. This new multi-scale framework for the modelling of metal fuels is to be supported by a wide variety of (laser-diagnostic) measurement techniques. The project consists of 3 parts and each part has an experimental and a numerical component:

The influence of environment and inter-particle interactions on the combustion of single particles (left)
The creation and propagation of flame fronts dominated by mutual ignition (middle)
The creation of 3D metal aerosol flames by superposition of multiple flame fronts (right)

6 PhD students on Metal Fuels Conversion Technology