Executive Summary : | The growing energy demand in the modern world is the biggest challenge due to its catastrophic effect on the environment. Renewable and sustainable energy sources can only meet the modern-era challenges of energy requirements. The hydrogen-enrich fuel is becoming popular due to its renewability and zero carbon emission. Of course, with the advantages of these fuels, we have certain challenges— (1) Generation methodology of these fuels, (2) Transportation, safety, and storage, and (3) design of the compatible systems for the efficient utilization of such fuels. The present proposal aims to address the issues related to transportation and safe storage. The present proposal aims to investigate the explosion dynamics of hydrogen-rich fuels. The present proposal can be broadly divided into four phases— First phase deals with the development of the reactor and experimental setup to test explosion characteristics of hydrogen-rich fuels. The second phase involves explosion characteristics mapping considering the fuel components and obstacles. The third phase is related to the optical diagnostics experiments at critical conditions that arrived from the previous steps to unravel flow and flame interaction. The last phase is dedicated to computational modeling. The reactor to test various hydrogen-rich fuels will be developed. This setup will have an optical access window for diagnostics experiments and the facility to change the configurations of the blockage. The control parameter for the proposed work is multi-fuel component and obstacles. It is evident that the pure fuels' combustion properties are drastically different compared to multi-component fuel blends. Hydrogen is highly reactive and possesses drastically different transport properties than conventional hydrocarbon-based fuels. This results in the very complex reacting behavior of hydrogen-rich fuels. Hence the explosion dynamics of pure fuels and blended fuels are different. The multi-component fuels nature is also very critical to study as the hydrogen-rich fuels are fuel-flexible in nature, and the chemical composition of these fuels depends upon the source and method of generation. This phase is further extended towards the study of the effect of the dilutions like nitrogen and carbon dioxide as they are expected to act as inhibitors, which will help control the explosion dynamics. The next phase is related to the configuration of the obstacle, which can change the turbulent intensity and the flow field. This will also change the mixing properties locally and can affect explosion behavior. Additionally, the material of the obstacles is also very important as it will change the heat transfer properties of the flame locally and hence affects the explosion responses. The work involves experiments related to explosion characterization and detailed optical diagnostics across the above parameters. The work's outcome will play a critical role in safely transporting and storing hydrogen-rich fuels |
Co-PI: | Dr. Naresh Yarramsetty, sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, surat, Gujarat, Dr. sudipto Mukhopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Dr. Meenatchidevi Murugesan, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dharwad, Karnataka |