Development of a catalytic combustion system for the MIT Micro Gas Turbine Engine

As part of the MIT micro-gas turbine engine project, the development of a hydrocarbon-fueled catalytic micro-combustion system is presented. A conventionally-machined catalytic flow reactor was built to simulate the micro-combustor and to better understand the catalytic combustion at micro-scale. In the conventionally-machined catalytic flow reactor, catalytic propane/air combustion was achieved over platinum. A 3-D finite element heat transfer model was also developed to assess the heat transfer characteristics of the catalytic micro-combustor. It has been concluded that catalytic combustion in the micro-combustor is limited by diffusion of fuel into the catalyst surface. To address this issue, a catalytic structure with larger surface area was suggested and tested. It was shown that the larger surface area catalyst increased the chemical efficiency. Design guidelines for the next generation catalytic micro-combustor are presented as well.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Peck, Jhongwoo, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ian A. Waitz.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28292

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28292