How to minimize emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere

An article of a Russian and American team of scholars appeared in the leading international journal in the field of physical chemistry Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. In the publication the calculations are given that allow predicting the concentration of dangerous carcinogens at fuel burning with high precision. The corresponding research was made at Samara University within the work over the mega-grant under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Mebel, Florida International University.

Combustion reactions are being investigated at Samara National Research University within the mega-grant given by the government of the Russian Federation. The project is directed at the solution of an acute problem, i.e. prevention of environment pollution.  

“At combustion of different fuel types polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) being dangerous carcinogens are always formed, - one of the article authors, research worker of Research and Education Centre for Gas-Dynamic Studies Ivan Chechet, explains. – We investigated chemical reactions of H-abstraction of benzapyrene, one of the most dangerous carcinogenic PAHs and of chrysene preceding it. And got the kinetic constant of chemical reactions which are drastically different from the earlier published ones. The application of the received constants will enhance the predictive capability of NASA mechanisms (H-Abstraction, C2H2-Addition) with forecasting of PAH concentrations”. In its turn, the more precise forecast will allow to reduce the amount of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.

By results of the project the team of Samara University scholars will offer engineers designing engines physically justified combustion models for construction of principally new ecological and energy-efficient combustion chambers for gas-turbine engines. This is more than an actual task as international emission limits of hazardous effluents are being constantly made more rigid and for provision of Russian entrepreneurs’ competitiveness new environmentally friendly technologies of combustion are necessary.

“It is important to minimize the formation of carcinogenic substances at the stage of combustion engine design, diesel, gas turbines, aviation and rocket engines. To minimize them it is necessary to understand how they are formed. For this we investigate the corresponding fundamental mechanisms”, - Alexander Mebel explained.

For reference

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (РССР) is an international journal in which original works in the field of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry are published. The obligatory condition for publication of an article in PCCP is its contents with the significantly new understanding of physical chemistry. 

The journal has quartile Q1 in all scientific fields defined in the base: Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous). According to Journal Citation Reports in 2016 the impact factor of PCCP made 4.123. In Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases PCCP has been indexed from 1999.