This thesis presents a tentative definition of the concept of sustainopreneurship - in the most simplified form described as entrepreneurship and innovation for sustainability - “Business with a Cause”. The concept takes its departure from generic entrepreneurship theory development, its extensions and further contextualization into the domains of sustainability, primarily through recent research. A literature review provides core references related to the conceptualization of sustainability entrepreneurship. A claim is made that there is a need for further conceptual development, especially viewed in contrast to the empirical material and experience, when digesting the literature that deals with concepts preceding sustainopreneurship. These concepts are eco-preneurship and social entrepreneurship, as well as current descriptions of sustainability entrepreneurship, including some sources where the word sustainopreneurship in itself is introduced for the first time. The methodological approach used when conducting the literature review is an analytical stance. Additional analysis, integrating and extending the reviewed sources, leads us to a performative definition of sustainopreneurship. This tentative definition is presented as an imagined prospective wordbook entry in a “future history” format. One of the key distinctions in between entrepreneurship in general and sustainopreneurship, is that sustainopreneurship is mission- and cause oriented - business activity is used as a means to solve sustainability-related problems. In short, to turn business activity from being a part of the problem to be a part of the solution. This world of ideas is set in contrast to the practical enaction of On a Mission Sweden – Inc. Ass, and the seven brands developed from this business platform – Club PuLS™, DJ Anders, SEEDS Sustainability Investment Fund, SEEDS Magazine, Ignition®, SLICE Services and Publishing™ and S*E*N*S*A. Three of these only reached conceptual stage for future potential launch. Four got established, and of these; one idle, two spun off in their own ventures, and one intended to spin off during 2007. Entrepreneurship as a concept to describe the nature of these ventures was experienced as insufficient, until 2003, when the concept of “sustainopreneurship” was found by serendipity. The conceptual dissatisfaction with “entrepreneurship-as-usual”, together with finding this new concept, made me instantly embrace this concept in the moment when stumbled upon. Another major driver for this work is a strong aspiration to take the abstract, general words and statements from world summits and conferences to the practical, hands on, down to earth, grass-root, local level with real world interaction to make possibilities of the problems related to the sustainability agenda. The ventures created from a time span of over seven years, forms a vast, deep, dense, intense and extremely rich “gross” empirical base from where the study collects its selective “net” material relevant for this study. The methodological approach to make sense and use of these serial and parallel self-initiated and self-experienced venturing processes is enactive research. The enactive research provides an opportunity to test the suggested formulation of sustainopreneurship – from the abstract idea to the concrete interaction. A special form of ethnography is used named self-ethnography. The ventures who have proven to perpetually evolve, develop and sustain are focused; On a Mission Sweden – Inc. Ass. and Ignition®. These ventures have provided the most significant change in both idea development, practice, and effect - both regards my inner world of insight breakthroughs and personal development, and the findings on a more abstract, conceptual, theoretical level. In order to highlight the three key dimensions of the concept, some key courses of events have been selected where they are considered to hold illustrative power: Firstly, the central events before the formalized venturing. Secondly, the milestones singled out during the venturing. Thirdly, some post-venture reflections around the process as such. The ethnographic style of the tales of the field is predominantly realist, with some degree impressionist. The final chapter summarizes and presents an intermediary conclusion whether the concept has met the test and also discusses the meaning of the exercise as a whole. My own function is examined and evaluated briefly. The promise of the conceptual introduction is contrasted towards the approaches-as-usual regards the sustainability agenda that introduced the thesis, and some key points are delivered. Venturing in the name of sustainability allows agents to “act outside the box” related to the institutional framework that governs the structures that is set to solve the problems today, equipped with an upgraded mindset, operating with an agility made possible by the flexibility offered by creative business organizing. The quest to make (business) opportunities from the agenda set by sustainability, and organizing upon them in itself creates a sustaining meaning internally within the team to be able to ride through the storms – the same force traditionally driving NGO’s “not-for profit”, now coupled with a good business sense operating “for-profit”, with profit as a means, not as an end in itself - in a new in-between-land named “for prosperity”. When properly understood from knowledge increasing among other stakeholders than the sustainopreneurial teams and their closest supporters and early adopters, the welcoming of sustainopreneurial ventures are destined to increase. Proliferation and diffusion of sustainopreneurship in idea, applied interaction and reflective practice beyond this point can turn sustainability to be the main driver for business activity, internalizing the external sustainability demands as the primary purpose of the business creation and idea, forming its strategic intent, and integrated in its “organizational DNA”. Sustainopreneurship holds the power to give even more leverage to forces emerging from the business world that contributes to sustainability. Throughout the process, a question has been emerging to serve as a new opening for further interaction, where the claim is that sustainopreneurship delivers a good part of the answer; How can we innovate and interact in order to reach a critical mass of people and energies to create a sustainable world?

Pulsed Detonation Engines (PDEs) have the potential to revolutionize fight by better utilizing the chemical energy content of reactive fuel/air mixtures over conventional combustion processes. Combustion by a super-sonic detonation wave results in a significant increase in pressure in addition to an increase in temperature. In order to harness this pressure increase and achieve a high power density, it is desirable to operate PDEs at high frequency. The process of detonation initiation impacts operating frequency by dictating the length of the chamber and contributing to the overall cycle time. Therefore a key challenge in the development of a practical PDEs is the requirement to rapidly initiate a detonation in hydrocarbon-air mixtures. This thesis evaluates the influence of spark energy and airflow velocity on this challenging initiation process. The influence of spark energy, number of sparks and airflow velocity on Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT) was studied during cyclic operation of a small-scale PDE at the General Electric Global Research Center. Experiments were conducted in a 50 mm square transitioning to cylindrical channel PDE with optical access operating with stoichiometric ethylene-air mixture. Total spark energy was varied from 250 mJ to 4 J and was distributed between one and four spark plugs located in the same axial location. Initial flame acceleration was imaged using high-speed shadowgraph and was characterized by the time to reach 20 cm from the spark plug. Measurements of detonation wave velocity and emergence time, the time it takes the detonation wave to exit the tube, was measured using dynamic pressure transducers and ionization probes. It was found that the flame front spread was faster at higher spark energies and with more spark locations. Initial flame acceleration was 16% faster for the 4-spark, 4 J case when compared to the baseline 1-spark, 1 J case. When looking at the effect of airflow on the influence of spark energy, it was found that airflow had a larger effect on emergence time at high energies, versus energies less than 1 J. Finally, for a selected case of 0.25 J spark energy and 4 sparks, the velocity of the fuel-air mixture during fill was found to have a varying influence on detonation initiation and emergence time.

<p>This thesis presents a tentative definition of the concept of sustainopreneurship - in the most simplified form described as entrepreneurship and innovation for sustainability - “Business with a Cause”. The concept takes its departure from generic entrepreneurship theory development, its extensions and further contextualization into the domains of sustainability, primarily through recent research. A literature review provides core references related to the conceptualization of sustainability entrepreneurship. A claim is made that there is a need for further conceptual development, especially viewed in contrast to the empirical material and experience, when digesting the literature that deals with concepts preceding sustainopreneurship. These concepts are eco-preneurship and social entrepreneurship, as well as current descriptions of sustainability entrepreneurship, including some sources where the word sustainopreneurship in itself is introduced for the first time. The methodological approach used when conducting the literature review is an analytical stance. Additional analysis, integrating and extending the reviewed sources, leads us to a performative definition of sustainopreneurship. This tentative definition is presented as an imagined prospective wordbook entry in a “future history” format. One of the key distinctions in between entrepreneurship in general and sustainopreneurship, is that sustainopreneurship is mission- and cause oriented - business activity is used as a means to solve sustainability-related problems. In short, to turn business activity from being a part of the problem to be a part of the solution.</p><p>This world of ideas is set in contrast to the practical enaction of On a Mission Sweden – Inc. Ass, and the seven brands developed from this business platform – Club PuLS™, DJ Anders, SEEDS Sustainability Investment Fund, SEEDS Magazine, Ignition®, SLICE Services and Publishing™ and S*E*N*S*A. Three of these only reached conceptual stage for future potential launch. Four got established, and of these; one idle, two spun off in their own ventures, and one intended to spin off during 2007. Entrepreneurship as a concept to describe the nature of these ventures was experienced as insufficient, until 2003, when the concept of “sustainopreneurship” was found by serendipity. The conceptual dissatisfaction with “entrepreneurship-as-usual”, together with finding this new concept, made me instantly embrace this concept in the moment when stumbled upon. Another major driver for this work is a strong aspiration to take the abstract, general words and statements from world summits and conferences to the practical, hands on, down to earth, grass-root, local level with real world interaction to make possibilities of the problems related to the sustainability agenda. The ventures created from a time span of over seven years, forms a vast, deep, dense, intense and extremely rich “gross” empirical base from where the study collects its selective “net” material relevant for this study. The methodological approach to make sense and use of these serial and parallel self-initiated and self-experienced venturing processes is enactive research. The enactive research provides an opportunity to test the suggested formulation of sustainopreneurship – from the abstract idea to the concrete interaction. A special form of ethnography is used named self-ethnography. The ventures who have proven to perpetually evolve, develop and sustain are focused; On a Mission Sweden – Inc. Ass. and Ignition®. These ventures have provided the most significant change in both idea development, practice, and effect - both regards my inner world of insight breakthroughs and personal development, and the findings on a more abstract, conceptual, theoretical level. In order to highlight the three key dimensions of the concept, some key courses of events have been selected where they are considered to hold illustrative power: Firstly, the central events before the formalized venturing. Secondly, the milestones singled out during the venturing. Thirdly, some post-venture reflections around the process as such. The ethnographic style of the tales of the field is predominantly realist, with some degree impressionist.</p><p>The final chapter summarizes and presents an intermediary conclusion whether the concept has met the test and also discusses the meaning of the exercise as a whole. My own function is examined and evaluated briefly. The promise of the conceptual introduction is contrasted towards the approaches-as-usual regards the sustainability agenda that introduced the thesis, and some key points are delivered. Venturing in the name of sustainability allows agents to “act outside the box” related to the institutional framework that governs the structures that is set to solve the problems today, equipped with an upgraded mindset, operating with an agility made possible by the flexibility offered by creative business organizing. The quest to make (business) opportunities from the agenda set by sustainability, and organizing upon them in itself creates a sustaining meaning internally within the team to be able to ride through the storms – the same force traditionally driving NGO’s “not-for profit”, now coupled with a good business sense operating “for-profit”, with profit as a means, not as an end in itself - in a new in-between-land named “for prosperity”. When properly understood from knowledge increasing among other stakeholders than the sustainopreneurial teams and their closest supporters and early adopters, the welcoming of sustainopreneurial ventures are destined to increase. Proliferation and diffusion of sustainopreneurship in idea, applied interaction and reflective practice beyond this point can turn sustainability to be the main driver for business activity, internalizing the external sustainability demands as the primary purpose of the business creation and idea, forming its strategic intent, and integrated in its “organizational DNA”. Sustainopreneurship holds the power to give even more leverage to forces emerging from the business world that contributes to sustainability. Throughout the process, a question has been emerging to serve as a new opening for further interaction, where the claim is that sustainopreneurship delivers a good part of the answer;</p><p>How can we innovate and interact in order to reach a critical mass of people and energies to create a sustainable world?</p>

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D. Tech. Mechanical Engineering. / Discusses how to reduce the negative impacts of petroleum oil based fuels in reciprocating engines on the environment through the use of oxygenated (alcohol) blends, while not deteriorating engine performance. The specific objectives are as follows: To evaluate the performance characteristics of n-butanol-diesel blends: B5, B10 and B20, in a direct-injection turbo-charged diesel engine and to compare findings with a study that was carried out by others (Sayin, 2010). To compare the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of dual alcohol-gasoline with single alcohol-gasoline blends fired in a naturally-aspirated (NA) spark ignition (SI) engine. To compare the combustion and emission characteristics of dual alcohol (methanol-n-butanol-gasoline) blends with single alcohol (methanol-gasoline) blends in a single-cylinder SI engine. To evaluate the combustion and regulated emission characteristics of DF and n-butanol/diesel blends (B5, B10, and B20 where B5 represents 5 % shared volume of n-butanol to 95 % diesel fuel) fired in a high load turbo-charged diesel engine and to compare the findings with a study that was conducted by Raslavicius & Bazaras, (2010).

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Flame-holding in a recessed cavity is investigated experimentally in a Mach 2.5 preheated cross-flow for both stable and unstable combustion, with a relatively low preheating. Self-sustained combustion is investigated for stagnation pressures and temperatures reaching 1.4 MPa and 750 K. In particular, cavity blowout is characterized with respect to cavity aspect ratio (L/D =2.84 - 3.84), injection strategy (floor - ramp), aft ramp angle (90 deg - 22.5 deg) and multi-fuel mixture (CH₄-H₂ or CH₄-C₂H₄ blends). The results show that small hydrogen addition to methane leads to significant increase in flame stability, whereas ethylene addition has a more gradual effect. Since the multi-fuels used here are composed of a slow and a fast chemistry fuel, the resulting blowout region has a slow (methane dominant) and a fast (hydrogen or ethylene dominant) branch. Regardless of the fuel composition, the pressure at blowout is close to the non-reacting pressure imposed by the cross-flow, suggesting that combustion becomes potentially unsustainable in the cavity at the sub-atmospheric pressures encountered in these supersonic studies. The effect of preheating is also investigated and results show that the stability domain broadens with increasing stagnation temperature. However, smaller cavities appear less sensitive to the cross-flow preheating, and stable combustion is achieved over a smaller range of fuel flow rate, which may be the result of limited residence and mixing time. The blowout data point obtained at lower fuel flow rate fairly matches the empirical model developed by Rasmussen et al. for floor injection phi = 0.0028 Da^-.8, where phi is the equivalence ratio and Da the Damkohler number. An alternate model is proposed here that takes into account the ignition to scale the blowout data. Since the mass of air entrained into the cavity cannot be accurately estimated and the cavity temperature is only approximated from the wall temperature, the proposed scaling has some uncertainty. Nevertheless the new phi-Da scaling is shown to preserve the subtleties of the blowout trends as seen in the current experimental data.

La dégradation de l’environnement ainsi que l’épuisement progressif des énergies fossiles devient très inquiétant et incite les états à définir des limites d’émission polluantes plus strictes. Ceci a conduit les constructeurs automobiles à poursuivre leurs recherches dans le développement de conception propre et efficace des moteurs en utilisant des combustibles alternatifs dans les moteurs à combustion interne.Dans le présent travail, on s’intéresse à l’étude des moteurs fonctionnant en mode DF afin d’améliorer ses performances tout en minimisant les émissions polluantes, en particulier les HC et les CO. Pour ce faire des études expérimentales ont été menées. Une réduction de 77% des émissions de HC a été observée en passant d’une richesse de 0,35 à 0,7. Par ailleurs, Il a été noté aussi qu’une diminution de 20% à 50% des émissions de CO avec une amélioration de 30% du rendement peut être visualisée en variant l’avance à l’injection de 4,5 °V à 6 °V. Concernant la mise en place de la pré-injection, une baisse de 30% des émissions de NOx a été observée avec un gain de 12% à 30% de rendement par rapport à une seule injection. En dernier terme, un modèle thermodynamique à une zone a été développé afin de prédire la température et la pression dans le cylindre. Une bonne concordance a été notée entre les deux résultats avec une erreur moyenne relative inférieure à 5%. / Currently, the environmental degradation due to pollutant emissions and the gradual depletion of fossil fuels, becoming very worrying, are prompting European directives to set pollutant emission limits. These have led manufacturers to continue research in the development of clean and efficient engine designs using alternative fuels in internal combustion engines.In this work, we focus on the study of engines operating in dual-fuel mode to improve its performance while minimizing pollutant emissions, particularly HC and CO. For this, experimental studies were conducted. A reduction of about 77% in the HC emissions was observed as the equivalence ratio was varied from 0.35 to 0.7. Regarding the effect of injection timing, it was noted that the CO emissions decreased about 20% to 50% with an improvement in the brake thermal efficiency by 30% upon varying the injection advance from 4,5 °CA to 6 °CA. On the other hand, the introduction of pre-injection strategy led to a decrease by 30% in NOx emissions with an amelioration of brake thermal efficiency of 12% to 30% compared to a single injection. Lastly, a single zone thermodynamic model was developed to predict the in-cylinder temperature and pressure. A good agreement was noted between the predicted and experimental results. The average relative error was less than 5%.

Dans un contexte de diminution des émissions polluantes émises par les moteurs à combustion interne, le secteur des transports assiste à une amélioration des motorisations mais également à une diversification des carburants pour l’automobile. L’utilisation de ces différents carburants entraîne souvent un impact sur les performances de la combustion. Dans le cas du moteur à allumage commandé, la performance dépend du dégagement d’énergie, image de la vitesse de la combustion, soit du front de flamme consommant le mélange air-carburant. Or toute flamme en expansion est théoriquement soumise à des effets de courbure et de cisaillement, toutes deux contributions de l’étirement. La réponse à l’étirement étant propre à chaque type de mélange air-carburant (lié au carburant proprement dit, à la richesse du mélange, à la dilution …), ce travail de thèse est centré sur la compréhension de l’impact de l’étirement sur les performances des carburants dans les moteurs à allumage commandé. Pour cela, différents mélanges air-carburant similaires du point de vue des propriétés thermodynamiques et des vitesses fondamentales de combustion laminaire mais avec des sensibilités à l’étirement différentes ont été sélectionnés. Ces mélanges ont ensuite été étudiés dans différentes configurations expérimentales et à l’aide de différentes techniques de mesure: moteur monocylindre opaque et à accès optiques, chambre sphérique de combustion turbulente. Les résultats montrent que les propriétés de sensibilités à l’étirement déterminées en régime laminaire comme la longueur de Markstein et le nombre de Lewis sont indicatrices du comportement des mélanges en combustion turbulente, comme dans la chambre de combustion caractéristique des moteurs à allumage commandé, et sont des paramètres à prendre en considération afin de prédire les performances plus globales de ces carburants que ce soit expérimentalement qu’en simulation. / In a context of decreasing pollutant emissions, the transport sector is facing an improvement of engine concept as well as a fuel diversification. The use of these different fuels often involves an impact on the combustion performance itself. In the case of Spark ignition engine, the efficiency is a function of the released heat, image of the combustion speed, i.e. the flame front speed consuming the air-fuel mixture. It is well known that every expanding flame is submitted to flame curvature and strain rate which are both contributors to flame stretch. As the answer of each air-fuel mixture (i.e. the fuel itself, the equivalence ratio, the dilution …) is different to flame stretch, the objective of this work is to understand flame stretch impact on fuel performance in Spark-Ignition engines. To achieve this goal, different fuel-air mixtures with similar unstretched laminar burning speed and thermodynamic properties but different responses to stretch were selected. Those mixtures were then studied with different experimental devices with different measurement techniques: single-cylinder metallic and optical engines, turbulent combustion spherical vessel. Results show that flame stretch sensitivity properties such as Markstein length and Lewis number, determined in laminar combustion regime, are relevant parameters to describe the flame propagation in turbulent combustion as in the combustion chamber of the Spark-Ignition engine and need to be taken into consideration to evaluate global performance of these fuels, experimentally and also in modeling simulation.

Depuis plusieurs années, l’une des problématiques sociétales est de diminuer les émissions de polluants et de gaz à effet de serre dans l’atmosphère. Le secteur du transport terrestre est directement concerné par ces considérations. Le moteur Diesel semble promis à un bel avenir grâce à son rendement supérieur à celui du moteur à allumage commandé, conduisant à de plus faibles rejets de CO2. Cependant, sa combustion génère des émissions d’oxyde d’azote (NOx) et de particules dans l’atmosphère. Les normes anti-pollution étant de plus en plus sévères et les incitations à diminuer les consommations de carburant de plus en plus fortes, le moteur Diesel est confronté à une problématique NOx/particules/consommation toujours plus difficile à résoudre. Une des voies envisagées consiste à modifier le mode de combustion afin de limiter les émissions polluantes à la source tout en conservant de faibles consommations. La voie la plus prometteuse est la combustion HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) obtenue par injections directes précoces. Plusieurs limitations critiques doivent cependant être revues et améliorées : le mouillage des parois par le carburant liquide et le contrôle de la combustion à forte charge. Le but de cette thèse est ainsi de mieux comprendre les phénomènes mis en jeu lors de la combustion HCCI à forte charge obtenue par des multi-injections directes précoces. Une méthodologie a été mise au point afin de détecter le mouillage des parois du cylindre, ce qui a permis de comprendre l’effet du phasage et de la pression d’injection sur cette problématique. Une stratégie optimale de multi-injections permettant d’atteindre une charge élevée sans mouiller les parois a ainsi été développée et choisie. Nous avons ensuite pu mettre en évidence le potentiel de la stratification par la dilution en tant que moyen de contrôle de la combustion en admettant le diluant dans un seul des 2 conduits d’admission. Des mesures réalisées en complémentarité sur le même moteur mais en version ‘optique’, ont permis, à partir de la technique de Fluorescence Induite par Laser, de montrer que concentrer le diluant dans les zones réactives où se situe le carburant permet un meilleur contrôle de la combustion, ce qui permet d’amener le taux de dilution a des niveaux faisables technologiquement. / For several years, reduce pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere is become a leitmotiv. The automotive world is directly affected by these considerations. Diesel engine has a promising future thanks to its efficiency higher than that of S.I. engine, leading to lower CO2 emissions. However, Diesel combustion emits nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates in the atmosphere. Emissions regulations are more and more severe, and considerations about fuel consumption are more and more significant. Thus, Diesel engine has to face a NOx/particulates/consumption issue that is more and more difficult to answer. One of the considered ways to reduce pollutant emissions while maintaining low fuel consumptions is to change the combustion mode. The most promising way is Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion with early direct injections. However, two major issues have to be answered: the wall wetting and the combustion control at high load. Thus, the objective of this PhD thesis is to better understand phenomena occurring during HCCI combustion at high load with early direct injections in order to answer these issues. We have developed a new methodology to detect the cylinder wall wetting process. This allowed to understand the effects of injection phasing and injection pressure on this issue. A multiple injections strategy has been tested and improved. It reaches a high load without cylinder wall wetting. Then, we have highlighted the potential of dilutant stratification as a technique of control of combustion. This technique is based on the introduction of dilutant in one inlet pipe while air is introduced in the other. The use of Laser Induced Fluorescence imaging on the same engine but with optical accesses showed that condensing dilutant in the reactive zones where the fuel is improves combustion control and allows the use of reasonable dilution level.