Foundations of plasma-assisted combustion : II. Mechanisms and applications

Abstract

In Part 1 of this Foundation paper, we introduced the main concepts and the basic principles of combustion and plasmas. Part 2 will now examine the topic of Plasma-Assisted Combustion (PAC) with an emphasis on applications to novel combustion systems, particularly those of importance for the energy transition. We start by providing an overview of laboratory experiments that have helped unveil the main fundamental mechanisms of PAC. We also describe some of the main advances achieved in numerical simulations of these rich and complex phenomena in three dimensional, turbulent flames. We then review applications of PAC to practical combustion systems representative of industrial configurations, emphasizing flame stabilization, lean blow-off limit extension, thermo-acoustic instability control, supersonic combustion and plasma detonation engines. Special attention is paid to the reduction of pollutants and the optimization of plasma power.