Research

Some Past Projects Include:

  • The effect of oxygenated fuel additives on diesel engine combustion and emissions, including biodiesel (methyl soyate/diesel fuel blends)
  • Ultra-clean transportation fuels, investigation of Fischer-Tropsch diesel fuels
  • Hydrogen assisted combustion in SI and CI engines
  • Impact of refinery integration of coal-based streams on gasoline and diesel fuels
  • Fuel and lubricant interactions, particularly involving effects of soot loading on lubricant performance and properties
  • Impacts of fuel formulation and combustion conditions on the surface chemistry, nanostructure and oxidative reactivity of diesel soot
  • Impacts of gasoline composition on homogeneous charge compression ignition engine performance

EXAMPLES OF PAST SUPPORT

  • Fuel Formulation Impacts on Gasoline HCCI and the Factors that affect and Control Fuel Performance, ConocoPhillips.
  • Clean and Efficient Diesel Locomotive, US DOE (subcontract from General Electric),co-funded by Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry
  • Impact of Biodiesel Fueling on Diesel Soot Characteristics and the Potential Influence on Engine Lubricant of these Soot Characteristics, National Biodiesel Board.
  • Determination of the Underlying Cause of the Biodiesel NOx Effect in Common Rail Diesel Engines, Cornell University (Northeast Sun Grant Initiative), co-PIs: A.L. Boehman and D.C. Haworth.
  • Sasol-Penn State Alliance: Research and Training of a Student in the Area of Thermal Oxidative Stability of Jet Fuel and Fabrication of Batch and Flow Reactor Systems, Sasol Fuel Chemistry Group.