Zero emissions power plants through combustion optimisation

Supervisors: Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, Professor Lin Ma and Dr Kevin Hughes.

The combustion of fossil fuels for power generation will remain to play a significant role to meet the increasing energy demand in the foreseeable future. Improving the fundamental understanding of the combustion and pollutant formation processes can lead to improved plant performance and substantially reduce the pollutant emission.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling is a powerful tool that, due to recent advances in computational power, has become useful in aiding the design and development of advanced power generation technologies with significant climate change mitigation potential. This project will use CFD as a tool, including using the Reynolds Average NS equations (RANS) and the Large Eddie Simulations (LES) and develop advanced new models to investigate the combustion phenomena that drive the heat transfer, pollutant emissions of thermal fired power plants.

The research will be supported from the data collected from the national TERC facilities as validation and verification. The research output will directly contribute to the next generation flexible and low emission burner designs for stable and efficient operation of power plants.

The studentship will support a highly motivated researcher to undertake this cutting edge research for future energy and power generation technologies. The successful applicants will receive appropriate training to work at the forefront of research.

For further information contact Professor Derek Ingham (d.ingham@sheffield.ac.uk).