Sustainable future fuels are likely to be produced by a wide range of processes, and there exists the opportunity to engineer these fuels so that they burn more efficiently and produce fewer harmful emissions. Such potential is especially important within the context of reducing the emissions of both greenhouse gases (GHG) and toxic pollutants that adversely impact air quality and human health. To illustrate how fuel design on a molecular level may be exploited to reduce these emissions, the combustion and emission properties of three potential future fuels, geraniol, diethyl carbonate, and a biodiesel (soy methyl ester), were evaluated along with a fossil diesel. The fuels were assessed using “smoke point” tests and a Stirling engine. The purpose of the demonstration was to highlight to a general audience several burning characteristics of some possible future fuels, and thus the potential for the development of clean burning “designer” fuels. During the 15 min demonstration, significant differences in the combustion properties of the different fuels were shown. For example, the conventional fossil diesel fuel produced a significant amount of soot in flame tests, whereas diethyl carbonate, which is a potential second-generation biofuel, produced visibly lower amounts of soot.

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在公众参与活动中展示清洁燃烧的未来燃料

可持续的未来燃料很可能会通过各种各样的过程生产，并且存在对这些燃料进行工程设计的机会，从而使它们更有效地燃烧并减少有害排放。在减少温室气体（GHG）和有毒污染物的排放方面，这种潜力尤其重要。为了说明如何在分子水平上利用燃料设计来减少这些排放，对三种潜在的未来燃料香叶醇，碳酸二乙酯和生物柴油（大豆甲酯）以及化石柴油的燃烧和排放特性进行了评估。使用“烟点”测试和斯特林发动机对燃料进行了评估。演示的目的是向一般观众强调某些将来可能使用的燃料的几种燃烧特性，从而开发出清洁燃烧的“设计”燃料。在15分钟的演示过程中，显示​​了不同燃料的燃烧特性的显着差异。例如，常规的化石柴油燃料在火焰测试中产生了大量的烟灰，而作为潜在的第二代生物燃料的碳酸二乙酯产生的烟灰明显更低。