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Sep 30, 2022

Researchers capture first images of carbon dioxide emissions from commercial aircraft engine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry

Researchers have used a novel near-infrared light imaging technique to capture the first cross-sectional images of carbon dioxide in the exhaust plume of a commercial jet engine. This new state-of-the-art technology could help accelerate turbine combustion research aimed at developing engines and aviation fuels that are more environmentally friendly.

“This approach, which we call chemical species tomography, provides spatially resolved information for from a large-scale commercial engine,” said research team leader Michael Lengden from the University of Strathclyde in the U.K. “This information has not been available before at this industrial scale and is a big improvement over the current industry-standard emissions measurement, which involves taking gas from the exhaust to a gas analyzer system in a different location.”

The researchers report the new research in Applied Optics. Chemical species tomography works much like the X-ray-based CT scans used in medicine, except that it uses near-infrared laser light tuned to the absorption wavelength of a target molecule and requires very fast imaging speeds to capture the dynamic processes of combustion.

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