Publications
Combustion chemistry and an evolving transportation fuel environment
The world currently faces tremendous energy challenges stemming from the need to curb potentially catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. In addition, many nations, including the United States, recognize increasing political and economic risks associated with dependence on uncertain and limited energy sources. For these and other reasons the chemical composition of transportation fuels is changing, both through introduction of nontraditional fossil sources, such as oil sands-derived fuels in the US stream, and through broader exploration of biofuels. At the same time the need for clean and efficient combustion is leading engine research towards advanced low-temperature combustion strategies that are increasingly sensitive to this changing fuel chemistry, particularly in the areas of pollutant formation and autoignition. I will highlight the new demands that advanced engine technologies and evolving fuel composition place on investigations of fundamental reaction chemistry. I will focus on recent progress in measuring product formation in elementary reactions by tunable synchrotron photoionization, on the elucidation of pressure-dependent effects in the reactions of alkyl and substituted alkyl radicals with O{sub 2}, and on new combined efforts in fundamental combustion chemistry and engine performance studies of novel potential biofuels.