Surrogate Development for Real Transportation Fuels

Current transportation fuels, such as gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and even non-petroleum-derived alternative fuels, are very complex mixtures of various classes of hydrocarbons. Fuel surrogates, which are simple mixtures of few well-characterized pure hydrocarbons that mimic targeted combustion characteristics of real fuels, have been a critical component for detailed combustion modeling of transportation fuels. We have developed a methodology to optimize surrogate formulation to identify mixtures emulating multiple target properties of real fuels. Our recent focus has been on matching the physical properties of liquid fuel, as they have significant impact on various phenomena of fuel spray. Also, we intend to provide insights on the directions for future experimental and kinetic studies and chemical mechanism development by identifying new hydrocarbons with favorable properties as the next generation fuel surrogates.