Traditionally, combustion has produced energy through the process of burning fuels, providing our cities, towns and global infrastructure with electricity that societies rely on around the world.
Because of the burning of fossil fuels, air quality is declining and governments are now looking at ways of producing energy through both renewable sources and high efficiency, low emission combustion technology.
The UK has implemented the regulation of medium combustion plants through the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCP), and from December 2018 all combustion plants consisting of boilers, gas turbines and engines with a thermal input between 1MW and 50MW are required to obtain a permit.
Relating to any energy networks that supply large buildings such as offices, hotels, hospitals and industrial processes, including power generation, large steam and hot water boilers, the Directive was developed as a result of research carried out under the Clean Air Policy Package - an EU initiative which aims to minimise air pollutants across Europe. The research found that pollution from medium combustion plants could be reduced relatively easily and cost effectively.
As well as the regulation of existing combustion plants, the development of low emission combustion chambers in various different sectors is beginning to realise some exciting new technologies which bring the tried and tested theory of combustion into today and tomorrows world.
One example of this is Mazda’s recent announcement to introduce gasoline-powered Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines in 2019. The holy grail of internal-combustion engine technology, these types of engine produce groundbreakingly low emissions and high efficiency.
Mazda developed its own combustion method, which ignites a compressed air-fuel mixture directly around a spark plug which builds a rich core. When fired, this small core creates a pressure wave that runs through the combustion chamber, increasing the compression and temperature to the critical point where the main body of fuel combusts.
In the aviation industry, the pulse detonation engine (PDE), pioneered by GE Aviation has produced some interesting initial results - which many industry experts believe could potentially reduce fuel burn in aircraft engines by as much as 10 percent.
It looks like it’ll be five to ten years before we see this technology being applied to aircraft, and it’ll be considerably longer before we see zero emission commercial aircraft in operation.
Some might ask why we are bothering with combustion technology when electric vehicles look set to be taking over – although electric vehicles will undoubtedly play a big part in our future, it’s unlikely we will see them taking over from combustion engines in our lifetime. As the need for super low emission combustion technology grows, engineering students will need an understanding of combustion principles - even more so than before.