The Energy Conversion research group at Aalto University, Finland is focusing in development of combustion technologies for reducing the emissions of energy industry, particularly in the ongoing transition towards new biomass-based fuels. The research focuses mainly on advanced combustion and fuel spray technologies, thermal materials in energy storage, storage of energy in fuels and compounds, carbon capture, utilisation and storage CCUS, and sustainable bioenergy conversion processes. As examples of ongoing research, we study the power-to-X technology for making methanol fuels using H₂ from water electrolysis and CO₂ from flue gas. We study combustion of different renewable fuels such as bio-diesel, methanol, H₂ and black liquor and interactive combustion of fuel blends in various applications. These include diesel and internal combustion engines, recovery boilers and different power boilers and power plant concepts. New combustion modes, including dual-fuel RCCI combustion are developed in large marine engine context, using advanced 3D CFD simulations [1]. A new technology, tri-fuel combustion, e.g. hydrogen-methane-diesel, is being developed by detailed chemical simulations and 3D Large-Eddy Simulations. On the fuel injection side, emerging new insight has been established between inner nozzle flow and primary atomisation of black liquor, an important biofuel in Finland [2].

Link to the introduction video here.

References: [1] H. Kahila, O. Kaario,  A. Wehrfritz, and V. Vuorinen, Large-eddy simulation of dual-fuel ignition: Diesel spray injection into a lean methane-air mixture, Combustion and Flame (2019), [2] E. Laurila, S. Koivisto, A. Kankkunen, K. Saari, V. Maakala, M. Järvinen, V. Vuorinen, Computational and experimental investigation of a swirl nozzle for viscous fluids, submitted to International Journal of Multiphase Flow 2019.