Team tests for 'Greenest' Vroom; UC Merced duo helps model the efficiency of alternative fuel engines.
By Victor A. Patton, The Merced-Sun Star
January 11, 2008
Humans have a long way to go before their seemingly perpetual dependence on gasoline is gone -- but studies by two UC Merced researchers could take an important step in that direction.
Gerardo Diaz, a professor at UC Merced's School of Engineering, and UC Merced staff researcher Joel Martinez-Frias are collaborating with scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop and conduct a series of computer simulations testing the efficiency of certain alternative fuel engines.
Diaz and Martinez-Frias will conduct their studies using a computerized model of a homogeneous charged-compression ignition engine that resembles a cross between a standard automobile engine and a diesel truck engine.
The computerized engine will be powered with alternative fuel models, such as propane and hydrated ethanol. "We'll learn from the simulations what we can do to improve (engine) efficiency," Martinez-Frias said.
The researchers will then take their findings and compare them with data from lab experiments. "Diesel engines tend to have more problems (with) emissions of pollutants, but they have high efficiency. On the other hand, engines from automobiles have less efficiency -- but they have less emissions," Diaz said. "We are working on an engine that takes the best of both worlds with low emissions and high efficiency -- and were modeling the way that engine works."
The team, on Lawrence Livermore's side, is being led by Salvador Aceves, director of the school's Engineering Directorate's Energy Conversion and Storage Group. Together, the researchers hope to ultimately develop tools that can help the automotive industry create more fuel-efficient vehicles -- a prospect that may not be that far in the future.
Diaz said Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers already have forged relationships with such corporations as Cummins and Ford Motor Co. Mercedes-Benz has also created a concept car that uses a similar technology, Diaz said.
Perhaps more importantly, however, the aim of the project is to accelerate new engine technologies that help cut the country's dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels, as well as to lower carbon and toxic emissions. "This is not (within) a 50-year time frame. We are trying to do things so that basically we see the results relatively soon, within this decade for instance," Diaz said.
The team's research on alternative fuel engines is also important, Diaz said, given the controversy over global warming and the effects that harmful emissions have upon the Earth's atmosphere. "If we can address these types of situations (by) looking at technologies which are going to increase the efficiency of engines and also reduce pollution, then we are going to be helping the environment," Diaz said. "Anything that addresses those types of problems is worth pursuing."
UC Merced researchers began the project with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Dec. 1., operating on a $205,000 subcontract with the national laboratory, funded for two years by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
They previously worked with Lawrence Livermore scientists on a similar project which studied an assimilated engine powered by hydrogen, oxygen and argon.
Print
|
