Understanding the Behaviour of Gases in Combustion Processes

Climate change has led to detailed industrial legislation for emissions reduction. For example, the UK aviation sector is part of a commitment to reduce emissions of CO2 by 75% and NO by 90%. In addition, validated remote measurements of gaseous emissions are required in the direct determination of burning/flaring efficiency, addressing a key uncertainty in GHG emissions across several industrial production and waste management activities. New methodologies are required for such harsh, high temperature environments as current high temperature techniques require extractive sampling and cooling.

Tunable diode laser spectroscopy with wavelength modulation (TDLS-WMS) offers in-situ, non-intrusive measurements at high temporal resolution (100s Hz) and has been proven to be ideal for emissions and combustion measurements, particularly in the aerospace sector. This is evidenced in Rolls-Royce support for the Strathclyde's team research in this area (EP/T012595/1 - £5.8m, EP/P001661/1 - £1.2m, EP/J002178/1 - £2.8m, EU CleanSky - £2M). To establish the suitability of the technique for legislative emissions quantification an in-depth analysis of the TDLS-WMS technique is required for both species concentration and temperature.