News

The publication "Hybrid Stirling engine-adsorption chiller for truck auxiliary power unit applications" by Barry Flannery, Oliver Finckh, Harald Berresheim and Rory F.D. Monaghan has been recently accepted for publication at the International Journal of Refrigeration. This paper presents preliminary experimental test results for a novel truck auxiliary power unit (APU) design consisting of a 1 kWe free-piston Stirling engine and 2 kWtzeolite-water adsorption chiller that is powered via waste heat from the engine's cooling jacket. A prototype system was built and tested to study the interaction dynamics between the Stirling engine and adsorption chiller and to determine the performance of the chiller in extreme ambient temperature conditions. The results show that pulsed thermal loading from the chiller on the engine results in engine power spikes to 110–115% of rated power. The proposed system has many benefits over existing technologies such as low noise, high reliability and clean emissions without any need for additional exhaust treatment. This research was supported by the Irish Research Council and Thermo King Ingersoll Rand via an Enterprise Partnership Scheme Postgraduate Scholarship (Project ID: EPSPG/2013/579). #LoveIrishResearch You can find this publication online here.

Alessandro Singlitico presented his work on Technical potential of bio-SNG produced via nationwide system of gasification and methanation at the Wolrd Sustainable Energy Days in Wels, Austria. This event is one of the largest annual conferences in the field of energy in Europe  and attracted over 700 participants from 59 countries. In this year's edition, Alessandro presented his research during the "Young Researchers Conference: Biomass" session related to the resource assessment of possible feedstocks for gasification and methanation and performs GIS-based (Geographic Information System) mapping of available resources. Results of his work showed that these technologies have the technical potential to contribute to 5.58% and 5.23% to 2020 Ireland’s total final consumption of energy in heating and transport with currently available waste and residues, meeting the half of the 2020 Ireland’s energy targets, 12% RES-H or 10% RES-T. It also found that the whole targets can be met by introducing energy crops grown exclusively on low-value marginal land and sustainable stump removal. This work has emaneted from financial support by Science Foundation Ireland and Gas Networks Ireland through the Research Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI). Important technical and data contributions were also given by Teagasc, Coillte, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Central Statistics Office of Ireland. For more information, you can refer to Alessandro's paper here and his project's website .

The paper entitled “A Comparative Study of Computational Algorithms used in the Automatic Generation of Reduced-Order Models from CFD Simulations” was awarded with this special distinction out of 74 presentations at the Building Simulation Applications Conference BSA 2017 in Bonzen-Bolzano, Italy. This award recognises the novel research carried out by Thibault Marzullo. For more information, you can visit Thibault's project website .

Professor Henry Curran was awarded €1.9 million to focus on understanding, at a molecular level, how fuel burns in combustors. This will enhance the efficient utilisation of energy and develop sustainable energy sources in order to comply with economic, environmental, and strategic imperatives. Professor Curran explains: “We will combine experimental chemical combustion studies with detailed computer models to develop accurate chemical kinetic models, leading to the identification of optimal conditions for combustion efficiency with minimal emissions. We will study the combustion of conventional fuels by considering some key gasoline and diesel components in addition to some novel biofuels to be used in gas turbines for energy production.” For more information, visit C3 Research Group and NUIG news.

MEng Alessandro Singlitico attended the EPA National Water Event 2016 in Salthill, Galway, Ireland. This year's event was entitled "Working together from Source to Sea - Science to Action" and counted with the participation of local authorities, regulators, and water professionals to learn about current changes in Ireland's water policy and practices. Alessandro was presenting a scientific poster on research related to the integration of thermal conversion technologies, i.e. gasification and combustion, with anaerobic digestion as means of sewage sludge management in wastewater treatment plants. For more information, check information on this EPA-funded project .

 The paper is entitled “Effect of Chemical Composition on the Pyrolysis Kinetics of Lignocellulosic Biomass Using Surrogates” .  The paper introduces a numerical modelling procedure that deciphers the complicated thermochemical and thermophysical reaction kinetic and mass transfer processes responsible for the conversion of renewable lignocellulosic and municipal solid wastes into valuable chemical commodities, chemical energy carriers, or heat energy. Figuring out how to reuse municipal solid (household) wastes and lignocellulosic (plant matter) wastes are key challenges for a sustainable and low carbon society. The paper proposes a methodology to do this by approximating the composition of various lignocellulosic wastes as “surrogate” mixtures of simple chemically discrete monomers. With the assistance of MSSI Instrument Scientist Dr. Wynette Redington, the Thermal Gravimetry experimental facilities at the MSSI have been used to test the appropriateness of this principle. With the wastes deciphered from macroscopically defined “engineering” materials into microscopically defined “scientific” materials, their thermochemical reaction is modelled at the molecular level, providing new and detailed comprehension of the elementary processes. The paper was one of two contributions out of 476 submitted by 340 participants from 51 countries to receive best paper awards at the recent 6th International Conference on Waste Engineering & Biomass Valorisation at Albi France. The research is the result of a UL-NUIG collaboration between Dr. Karla Dussan, Dr. Rory Monaghan and Dr. Stephen Dooley funded by SFI, EPA, and IRCSET. The prize consists of €500 book vouchers for hungry minds! Text taken from MSSI news. For more information, you can acess the related conference papers here and here.