SMART Award to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Gas

Camcon Technology based in Cambridge,the inventor and developer of Camcon binary actuator,(Revealed in various articles in Eureka: look in Reference Library for more information) has won a £45,000 Smart Award from the Department of Trade and Industry to undertake a feasibility study aimed at greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from gas and liquid fuel turbines. Nitrous Oxide (NOx) emitted by gas and liquid fuel turbines is a serious greenhouse gas threat because, unlike CO2, it cannot be recycled; instead it accumulates in the stratosphere. Research on reduction of NOx emissions from turbine engines indicates that NOx can be greatly reduced by running in ‘lean burn’ mode, however this simultaneously produces instability and ultimately catastrophic failure of the flame chambers. Research teams including the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge have reported that the flame can be stabilised in ‘lean burn’ mode by introducing high frequency modulation to the incoming fuel stream. But such fuel control requirements cannot be fulfilled by any existing technology. Camcon binary actuating technology has been tested in similar control applications and proved to be capable of achieving the speed and accuracy required to modulate the incoming fuel stream in a gas turbine application.The feasibility study will seek to achieve necessary modulation speed without negatively impacting other aspects of fuel delivery. "The SMART Award will help us accelerate research on the application of the Camcon® binary actuator in many areas of flow modulation. We believe that the elimination of the greenhouse emissions is a severe technical challenge, but if we succeed, it will lead to extremely positive environment benefits,” said Christopher McDouall, Commercial Director, Camcon Technology. The EU Member States collectively agreed to an eight per cent reduction in reenhouse gases at the Kyoto Summit in 1997. The UK's contribution to this target has been set at a 12.5 per cent reduction on 1990 levels.Camcon Technology