Events Calendar

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series

Speaker: Ahmed Ghoniem, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Talk Title: Combustion for Clean Energy: From Low Emissions to Low CO2

Series: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Seminar Series

Abstract: The World's energy consumption is growing rapidly. Hydrocarbons will remain the major primary energy source for many decades, prompting concerns over CO2 and its climate impact. Near-term strategies, including higher conversion and utilization efficiency, CO2 capture and expanding renewables should be pursued vigorously. Combustion research must contribute aggressively towards these goals, including work on gas-phase oxy-combustion, membrane-supported thermochemistry and chemical looping combustion. The latter options reduce the energy penalty in oxygen production, but need special catalytic surfaces, device design and system integration. I will review some of our recent work addressing these challenges. Premixed oxy-fuel combustion offers significant advantages, including retrofit, but experiences similar dynamics and instabilities to air combustion. I will cover our recent experimental and numerical work on the subject, some of the fundamental similarities and difference between the two processes and how progress in turbulent combustion and kinetics will enable better implementation of this promising technology.

Biography: Ahmed F. Ghoniem is the Ronald C Crane Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and the director of the Center for Energy and Propulsion Research and the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Cairo University, and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include computational engineering; combustion and thermochemistry; CO2 capture and reuse (oxy-combustion, membrane separation and chemical looping) and fuel production from renewable sources. He has supervised more than 100 post-doctors and graduate students; published more than 330 refereed articles in leading journals and international conferences; and lectured extensively around the World. He is Fellow of ASME and associate fellow of AIAA.

Host: Prof. Fokion Egolfopoulos

Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Valerie Childress