Chemical Kinetics of Novel Biofuels

Biofuels are becoming increasingly important in the world's energy infrastructure and their use has steadily been increasing in Europe and the U.S. With a number of candidate biofuels, a concentrated effort must be spent on choosing the optimal fuel that can be produced in a cost-effective manner and deliver the best performance within the engine. The student will initially work on choosing a few candidate biofuel molecules to investigate these using experiments and models. Thereafter, the student will perform a series of experimental studies on the selected fuels to understand their chemical kinetics behavior. We have uniquely designed reactors (shock tube, rapid compression machine) and laser diagnostics to study elementary reactions and chemical kinetics of fuels. The student will also work on ab-initio rate calculations and detailed chemical kinetic modelling.

Dr. Farooq is an Associate Professor and the Program Director of Mechanical Engineering (https://pse.kaust.edu.sa/study/academic-programs/mechanical-engineering/Pages/home.aspx) in the Physical Science and Engineering Division (https://pse.kaust.edu.sa/) at KAUST. Dr. Farooq’s research interests are in the areas of energy sciences, combustion chemistry, spectroscopy and laser-based sensors. He is the principal investigator of Chemical Kinetics and Laser Sensors Laboratory and is affiliated with the Clean Combustion Research Center (https://ccrc.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Home.aspx). For more information on Dr. Farooq, see the following link: https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/study/faculty/aamir-farooq