Fundamental flame studies for ever-cleaner energy and mobility
Most processes that produce torque, thrust, or power are flame-based and emit pollutant by-products, including carbonaceous particulate (e.g., soot), which harm the environment and health. Yet, projections indicate that combustion applications in the energy and transportation sectors will remain dominant for at least two more decades. At the same time, flames are also used to manufacture functional powder materials (e.g., carbon black, titanium dioxide, fumed silica, etc.) with properties tailored to enhance performance in several applications, including in the energy sector (e.g., catalysts). Therefore, studying how gaseous reactants pyrolyze and form aerosols at high temperatures has crucial practical implications and remains highly relevant despite the knowledge already acquired on this topic. In particular, much more work is still needed to unravel the chemistry and physics of the initial particle nucleation in flames, where it occurs rapidly and in narrow spatial regions with steep gradients. Unraveling particle nucleation is particularly challenging because the sizes and masses of its intermediate products span extremely broad ranges, so much so that several complementary sampling and analysis techniques are necessary to investigate them. This seminar builds on an overview of fundamental combustion concepts to highlight the advantages and limitations of studying canonical laminar flame configurations in generating new meaningful results, considering differences between premixed and non-premixed conditions. In particular, the discussion evidences how the new canonical Planar Mixing Layer Flame (PMLF) configuration enables substantial advances in unraveling soot nucleation in non-premixed flames. If time allows, the presentation will also describe recent efforts to use a flame to enable the relatively inexpensive manufacturing of hard-to-synthesize nanostructured catalyst powders.
Bio: Francesco Carbone joined the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Connecticut in 2109, where he supervised the establishment of the Flame, Aerosol, and Nano Technologies (FANTastic) Laboratory. Earlier in his career, he served at Yale University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science as a Research Faculty (2014-2019) and Lecturer (2018) and benefitted from postdoctoral trainings in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California (2012-2014), the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University (2010-2012), and the Italian National Research Council (2008-2010). Carbone earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering (2008) and M.Sc. in mechanical engineering (2005) at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy). His research efforts in the fields of combustion, aerosol, and nanoparticle synthesis resulted in the publication of more than 45 articles in leading peer-reviewed journals.