GTL research agreement signed
Published Oct 19, 2009Texas A&M at Qatar on 13 Oct. signed a research agreement on behalf of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station with Qatar Science & Technology Park, Shell, Rolls-Royce and the University of Sheffield.
Through the agreement, Texas A&M at Qatar will investigate properties and combustion characteristics of gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel. Dr. Nimir Elbashir, visiting assistant professor of chemical engineering, will conduct a major part of the properties research work in the Fuel Characterization Lab, built to support research activities in the GTL field and other related fuel characterization projects. The main objective of his research is to investigate the properties of GTL synthetic jet fuels and to look for its potential to replace existing crude-oil jet fuels (e.g. jet A, jet A-1, jet B, etc.) and to understand the influence of the synthetic GTL jet fuel structure on its physical and chemical properties. The total budget for the properties project is $2.4 million. Dr. Reza Sadr, senior assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will investigate effects of GTL fuels on the spray characteristics in a gas turbine combustor. His research will consist of a combination of numerical and experimental validations of synthetic fuel in a range of facilities in leading institutions in this field at Rolls-Royce, German Aerospace Laboratory (DLR), and Texas A&M at Qatar under conditions representing modern and future gas turbine designs. The total budget for the combustion project is $2.4 million. For information contact Eric Frankson: eric.frankson@qatar.tamu.edu.