Advanced combustion engine concepts require fuels which are meticulously designed to harness full potential of novel engine technologies. To develop such fuels, better understanding of fuel properties and their effect on combustion parameters is needed. The investigations reported in this work establishes relationships between several fuel properties and combustion parameters at engine relevant conditions. Further, these findings along with conclusions from other studies are utilized to synthesize fuels and surrogate fuels with tailored combustion properties. This approach of designing fuels relies on constrained non-linear optimization of several combustion properties simultaneously to design surrogate fuels for transportation fuels to enable combustion simulations. This scheme of fuel design has been devised and presented as Fuel Design Tool in Ahmed et al. Fuel 2015. Detailed investigations have been made to understand the effect of fuel properties on the ignition of fuels in Rapid compression machines utilizing a custom built multi-zone model. The study was further extended to explore fuel effects on engine combustion utilizing experiments and modelling to gather understanding of instances of engine knocking and pollutant formation. Bio-blended fuels allow mitigation of harmful pollutants and also enables engines to operate at higher efficiency. Ignition characteristics of two high octane bio-blended gasolines were studied experimentally in rapid compression machine and shock tube and detailed chemical kinetic analysis was conducted to understand how the presence of biofuels (i.e., ethanol) in gasoline influences the evolution of important radicals controlling ignition. Another set of biofuels namely methyl acetate and ethyl acetate were studied employing fundamental experimental and computational methods. The investigation involved development and analysis of combustion chemistry models, speciation studies in jet stirred reactors, ignition delay measurements and determination of laminar burning velocities. These fuels are found suited for high performance advanced spark ignition engines and the developed model and analysis will lead to optimization of combustion performance. The developed fuel design tool along with enhanced understanding of combustion chemistry and fuel properties enables a complete toolkit ready to be utilized to develop fuels with better suited properties for the advanced combustion modes.

The fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) is a novel reactor design benefitting from passive safety features, high operating temperatures with corresponding high conversion efficiency, to name a few key features. The fuel is a layered graphite plank configuration containing enriched uranium oxycarbide (UCO) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles. Fuel cycle cost (FCC) models have been used to analyze and optimize fuel plate thicknesses, enrichment, and packing fraction as well as to gauge the economic competitiveness of this reactor design. Since the development of the initial FCC model, many corrections and modifications have been identified that will make the model more accurate. These modifications relate to corrections made to the neutronic simulations and the need for a more accurate fabrication costs estimate. The former pertains to a MC Dancoff factor that corrects for fuel particle neutron shadowing that occurs for double-heterogeneous fuels in multi-group calculations. The latter involves a detailed look at the fuel fabrication process to properly account for material, manufacturing, and quality assurance cost components and how they relate to the heavy metal loading in a FHR fuel plank. It was found that the fabrication cost may be a more significant portion of the total FCC than was initially attributed. TRISO manufacturing cost and heavy metal loading via packing fraction were key factors in total fabrication cost. This study evaluated how much neutronic and fabrication cost corrections can change the FCC model, optimum fuel element parameters, and the economic feasibility of the reactor design.

Biomass is increasingly used as a feedstock in global energy production. This may present operational challenges in energy conversion processes which are related to the inorganic content of these biomasses. As a larger variety of biomass is used the need for a basic understanding of ash transformation reactions becomes increasingly important. This is not only to reduce operational problems but also to facilitate the use of ash as a nutrient source for new biomass production. Ash transformation reactions were examined in the present work using the Lewis acid-base concept. The model presented in Paper I was further extended and discussed, including the definition of tertiary ash transformation reactions as reaction steps where negatively charged molecular ions, Lewis bases, other than hydroxides are present in the reactants. The effect of such reactions for bonding of various metal ions, Lewis acids, were discussed. It was found that the formation of various phosphates through secondary and tertiary ash transformation reactions is important for the behaviour of biomass ash in combustion. The suggested model was supported by findings in Papers II-VIII. The experimental findings in Papers II-VIII were discussed in terms of ash transformation reactions. The fuel design choices made to investigate the effect of phosphorus in particular on ash transformation reactions were high-lighted. Addition of phosphoric acid to woody-type and agricultural biomasses showed that phosphate formation has a large influence on the speciation of Si, S, and Cl. Co-combustion of a problematic agricultural residue with other biomasses showed that the relation between phosphorus, alkali and alkaline earth metal content is important. Co-combustion of biosolids with wheat straw was shown to greatly improve the combustion properties of wheat straw. It was suggested that fuel analyses should be presented using molar concentration (mole/kg) in diagrams based on ash transformation reactions and elements forming Lewis acids or bases. This may facilitate the assessment of the combustion behaviour of a fuel. Some comments were made on fuel design and additives, specifically pointing out that phosphorus content should always be carefully considered in relation to alkali and alkaline earth metals in fuels and fuel blends.

The chemical company Perstorp AB has a 50 MWth circulating fluidized bed to supply the production plant with process steam. The fuel mixture used shows a large variation with about 20 different fuel fractions that can be divided into the categories, residue wood chips, sludge, forest fuel, animal waste, industrial residues, and peat. From an economic and environmental perspective, the use of peat should be minimized because it is classified as a fossil fuel. Peat has positive combustion characteristics due to a combination of sulfur and silica based minerals that can reduce alkali chloride related corrosion. Therefore it is not always possible phase out peat without negatively affecting the boilers availability. Besides reducing CO2 emissions, it is desirable to reduce the use of additives such as limestone and to use cheap waste fractions as fuels when operating a boiler. Similar to peat, reduced use of limestone and the introduction of a new waste fractions can affect the boiler availability negatively. If less limestone is used the risk of agglomeration can increase and often waste products can contain ash elements problematic in both a agglomeration and corrosion perspective.The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the possibility of reducing the usage of peat by minimizing the limestone content and to see if it would be possible to add a new Na-rich waste fraction to the fuel mixture. This was investigated by determining first what fuels that are used and in what amounts. Each fuel was either sent for new elemental analysis or existing analyses were used depending on if it was deemed to be still representative. With the help of experienced personnel working with the boiler, future possible cases for fuel mixtures could be determined: Case 1. Replacing peat with forest fuels. Case 2. Replacing peat with residue wood chips. Case 3. Replacing both peat and animal waste with residue wood chips. Case 4. Introducing Na-rich fuel. The theoretical available SO2 content could be determined for each case and three limestone levels. For each case the CO2 emissions and the economic savings could be estimated when the peat were fully removed and the limestone content halved. From an SO2 perspective, the results indicate that it could be possible to phase out peat for cases 1-2 by adjusting the limestone levels but this would not be enough for case 3. Adding the Na-rich fuel could also be problematic and more investigation has to be put into potential additives and fuels to compensate for the additional Na.When peat is fully phased out in case 1-3 the CO2 emission would decrease by 10 000 tonCO2/year. Due to the cost of CO2 emissions, this could result in considerable monetary savings. From the results it is estimated that case 1 could save 9.1 million SEK/year, case 2 10.3 million SEK/year, and case 3 6.5 million SEK/year when the peat is fully removed. This does not include changes in availability and maintenance costs. / Kemiindustriföretaget Perstorp AB har en 50 MWth cirkulerande fluidiserad bädd panna för att förse produktionen med processånga. Bränsleblandningen som används visar en stor variation med ett 20-tal olika bränslefraktioner som kan delas in i kategorierna returflis (RT-flis), slam, skogsbränsle, slaktrester, industrirester och torv. Från ett ekonomiskt- och miljöperspektiv bör användningen av torv minimeras eftersom den är klassad som ett fossilt bränsle. Dock har torv positiva förbränningsegenskaper vilket beror på dess innehåll av såväl svavel som kiselbaserade mineraler vilka minskar korrosions förmågan för alkali-klorider. Därför är det inte alltid möjligt att fasa ut torven utan att riskera att försämra pannans tillgänglighet. Andra aspekter förutom minskade CO2 utsläpp som är fördelaktiga vid drift av en panna, är att minimera användningen av tillsatser som kalksten samt använda restprodukter som bränsle i största möjliga mån. Dock kan, som i fallet med torv, en minskad användning av kalksten och ett nytt restproduktbränsle ha potentiella negativa konsekvenser för pannans tillgänglighet. Om kalksten används i mindre utsträckning kan risken för klumpbildning i pannan, agglomerering, öka och ofta kan restprodukter från produktionen innehålla höga halter av problematiska grundämnen både i ett korrosions och agglomererings perspektiv.Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka möjligheterna att minska användningen av torv och kalksten samt möjligheten att tillföra ett nytt Na-rikt bränsle till bränsleblandningen. Detta undersöktes genom att först bestämma vad som eldades och i vilka mängder. Genom att använda data från leveransrapporter (för bränslen och additiv) och bränsleanalyser. I de fall det fanns representativ bränsleanalys användes dessa, i övrigt provtogs och beställdes nya bränsleanalyser. Med hjälp av erfaren personal som jobbar med pannan kunde olika möjliga framtida bränsleblandningar bestämmas. Dessa bränsleblandningar delades in i olika scenarion eller case som det kallas här: Case 1. Ersätta torv med skogsbränsle. Case 2. Ersätta torv med RT-flis. Case 3. Ersätta både torv och biomal (slaktrester) med RT-flis. Case 4. Introduktion av Na-rikt restbränsle. Baserat på en tidigare kartläggning av askomvandlingen i pannan kunde det teoretiska tillgängliga SO2 halten i rökgaserna bestämmas för varje case för tre olika kalkstenshalter. För varje case kunde sedan CO2 utsläppen samt de ekonomiska besparingarna estimeras då torv var helt urfasad och kalkstensinnehållet halverat. Från ett SO2 perspektiv pekar resultaten på att det skulle vara möjligt att fasa ut torven helt genom att minska kalkstenen mellan 0-50 vikt% för case 1 och 2 men inte för case 3. Att tillsätta det Na-rika bränslet kan potentiellt vara problematiskt. För att elda detta Na-rika bränslet kan det krävas en ny additiv eller ett S-rikt bränsle för att balansera tillskottet av Na och därmed minska korrosionsrisken.Vid utfasning av samtlig torv minskar CO2 utsläppen i case 1-3 med runt 10 000 tonCO2/år. Eftersom utsläpp av fossil CO2 är beskattat, uppskattas de möjliga besparingarna som betydande, 9.1 miljoner SEK/år i case 1, 10.3 miljoner SEK/år case 2 och 6.5 miljoner SEK/år i case 3 inklusive inköps- och askhanteringskostnader.