Non-equilibrium chemical conversion for sustainable energy

Date: 2022/03/16 - 2022/03/16

Academic Seminar: Non-equilibrium chemical conversion for sustainable energy

Speaker: Hongtao Zhong, Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University

Time: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m., Mar 16th, 2022 (Beijing Time)

Location: via Feishu

Abstract

With the rapid growth of renewable electricity and electrical transportation, in the next decades the foundation of the energy conversion will be transformed from fossil fuels to electrons for a zero-carbon energy future. Low temperature plasmas (LTPs) provide a promising solution to the challenges of high intermittency of renewable electricity, the lack of large-scale electricity storage, and unwanted emissions from fossil fuels as plasma-based technologies will be able to utilize renewable electricity in a flexible way and efficiently convert it into chemical and kinetic energy.

My PhD work has been focused on the underlying mechanism of plasma-based energy conversion, specifically, the impact of non-equilibrium chemistry involving electrons, radicals, excited or ground-state atoms and molecules on emissions, fuel reforming and ultra-lean ignition.  In this talk I will first introduce the kinetic study of excited oxygen atom reaction with ethanol, where selective and sensitive laser diagnostics are applied to probe key intermediates and extract the reaction channels.  Then, a recently developed plasma thermal-chemical instability based on non-equilibrium chemistry will be discussed from theory and modeling point of view, and experimental measurements of this instability are also provided. Finally, I will discuss research opportunities of plasma-assisted chemical conversion which integrate advanced laser diagnostics and machine learning and target low-carbon chemical manufacturing, advanced propulsion and power generation.

Biography

Hongtao Zhong is a PhD candidate at Princeton University, under the supervision of Prof. Yiguang Ju and Dr Mikhail Shneider. He earned the B.Eng degree at Tsinghua University in China. Hongtao’s research lies at the intersection of reacting flows, low-temperature plasmas, chemical kinetics, and laser diagnostics. He has won the distinguished paper award at the 38th International Symposium on Combustion. During his PhD, he was awarded with Eli Harari fellowship, SEAS award for excellence, and grad school teaching award from Princeton.