Meet REI people at upcoming conferences!

Congratulations to REI employees Andrew Fry and Connie Senior who co-authored one of twelve Distinguished Paper Awards at the 31st International Symposium on Combustion. The paper was based on the PhD research of Andrew Fry at the University of Utah. The title of the paper was “Experimental evaluation of the effects of quench rate and quartz surface area on homogeneous mercury oxidation.” 

Ameren has elected to install REI’s ALTA technology for NOx control at Sioux Power Plant. ALTA is a layered NOx technology demonstrated to achieve NOx emissions below 0.15 lb/mmBtu on Sioux’s 500 MW cyclone-fired boilers. ALTA combines the use of deep staging with Rich Reagent Injection (RRI) and Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) in a synergistic fashion to achieve very low NOx levels in a cost effective manner. Installation was completed in 2007 and the systems are now operating commercially.

REI continues work on several R&D contracts through the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program and STTR program. These programs include:

• U.S. Army Phase II SBIR - A Software Framework for Blast Event Simulation. In this research REI is developing a suite of next-generation simulations tools to better predict the effects of buried explosive devices on military vehicles.

• U.S. National Science Foundation Phase II SBIR - MEM Methods for Turbulent Combustion. In this project REI is investigating the use of the multi-environment probability density function (MEPDF) method to model turbulent combustion problems with realistic chemical kinetics within comprehensive CFD simulations of practical combustion equipment.

• U.S. Air Force Phase II STTR - Improved Kinetic Models for High Speed Combustion Simulation. In this project REI will develop and demonstrate computationally efficient methods for implementing improved chemical kinetics into state-of-the-art SCRAMJET combustion simulation codes. This will enable the Air Force to more accurately assess potential SCRAMJET designs and reduce dependence on expensive testing.

See Adel Sarofim's column in Combustion Research News: Coal-Burning Today is Signicantly Cleaner, More Efficient Due to Decades of Research, continuing a series of columns by this distinguished member of REI and former CRF Advisory Board Member.

Professor Adel Sarofim, Senior Technical Advisor at REI, has been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering and has been selected to receive the 2004 George Westinghouse Gold Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice," and those who have demonstrated accomplishment in "the pioneering of new fields of engineering, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education." Professor Sarofim was cited "for advancing our understanding of the mechanisms and modeling of processes that control radiation in and pollutant emissions from combustors."

The George Westinghouse Gold Medal was established by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1952 to perpetuate the value of the rich contributions to power development made by George Westinghouse, Honorary Member and Twenty-ninth President of the Society. Professor Sarofim was cited for "exemplary contributions as an educator, researcher and consultant in techniques, design, development and applications in the field of combustion and power production, with emphasis on fuels, flames, radiation heater transfer, and pollution." This award will be presented at the ASME Power Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, March 30-April 1, 2004.