Very One Specific Additives
| Project under the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur R&D recovery plan territorial unit | |
| Duration ► | 24 months |
| Start ► | January 2022 |
Context
On July 14, 2021, the European Commission adopted a set of voluntary and ambitious proposals in order to adapt the Union's policy, particularly in the field of climate, energy, agriculture and transport, in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 emissions and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
This roadmap called "FIT for 55" envisages reducing average greenhouse gas emissions of private vehicles and light commercial vehicles by 55% from 2030 and 100% from 2035 compared to 2021 levels but also to reduce CO2 emissions in the field of road and maritime transport.
In this context, synthetic fuels such as eFuels and ammonia, incorporating green hydrogen in their production processes, will take an important place in heavy mobility. Marginal modification of engines is therefore an issue in order to control investment costs (CAPEX) and operating costs (OPEX) and therefore requires the development of new fuel additives or new uses for existing additives allowing to adapt new fuels to existing engines.
The European Union has identified a number of fuels that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil), Ammonia and Methanol are among the fuels identified whose CO2 reduction potential, in a Well-to-Wheel analysis, is promising. However, the physico-chemical properties of these fuels may be quite far from the specificities required to make them compatible with existing and future engines. Thus, additives must be formulated in order to refine their ignition and lubrication properties, particularly under laboratory conditions and then close to those encountered in industrial applications.
Objectives
The VOSA project (Very One Specific Additives) aims to develop new uses for existing additives and to develop new ones. In particular, their impacts on HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil), Ammonia and Methanol fuels will be studied.
For this, experiments from the PRISME laboratory (rapid compression machine to determine ignition times, high pressure and high temperature enclosures to study the ignition of sprays and their combustion) will be used to validate the impact of additives on the effects promoters or inhibitors of ignition of air-fuel mixtures and to understand the chemical interaction of additives on the oxidation of fuels.
Finally, tests on industrial-type engine benches (heavy goods vehicles, etc.) will make it possible to verify the effects of additives on combustion and on polluting emissions.
Partners
The VOSA project is a continuation of a first collaboration contract whose objective was to study the physico-chemical impact of 2-NEH (2-ethylhexyl nitrate), a cetane promoter, on the oxidation diesel fuel in a single-cylinder compression-ignition research engine.
Work Plan
The project will be carried out at the University of Orleans for a period of 24 months from January 1, 2022. The experimental means not available in the VeryOne company will be made available in the PRISME laboratory. Monitoring of the VeryOne R&D department will be provided remotely and meetings on the industrial site will be scheduled periodically.
During the VOSA project, VeryOne will synthesize and characterize additives with high added values.
The PRISME laboratory will provide unique experiments to characterize the ignition of air-fuel-additive mixtures under homogeneous conditions and under conditions representative of compression ignition engines such as heavy goods vehicles or marine engines. In particular, a rapid compression machine will make it possible to measure the self-ignition of the mixture and to compare these delays with the result of the chemical kinetics simulation. A high pressure and high temperature chamber (60 bars and 900K) will also be used to study spray ignition. This ignition, similar to that encountered in engines, will be compared to that obtained in a standardized machine for measuring the cetane number (CID510). The particularity of the PRISME experimental device is that the operating conditions are much more representative of the operation of modern engines than the standardized machine and that wide optical access will allow optical diagnostics to be carried out in order to characterize the formation of in-situ pollutants and the parameters burning. Finally, a single-cylinder Volvo truck type will confirm the effects of additives in real operating conditions.
Expected results
This project will extend the framework of the previous study to fuels that meet the European and international challenges of decarbonizing road and maritime transport. More specifically, it will address the following points:
- Carry out and analyze the necessary tests to understand the combustion and emissions of different single-cylinder fuels, including specific tests to highlight the performance attributed to fuels and additives.
- Adapt and develop operating conditions in order to make the results readable by all engine communities, including heavy-duty, off-road and marine 2-stroke engines
- Adapt formulations, dosages and synthesis of additives to fuels in order to obtain optimized or improved engine performance in a rapidly changing fuel context (e-fuels, renewable fuels).
Valorisation
The study is perfectly in line with the objectives of supporting the transition to low-carbon technologies since it aims to formulate additives in order to adapt fuels with low CO2 emissions and therefore actively participate in the decarbonization of transport. road and sea.
It also aims to maintain employment on the national territory thanks to a product offer diversification of the VeryOne company .
Contact : Fabrice FOUCHER ⇒ fabrice.foucher@univ-orleans.fr