In the early steps of TRANSITION, chemical kinetics and engine performance tools will be adopted to evaluate the impact of EGR on the combustion process and on the overall engine operability. Both open-source and proprietary tools will be considered. Concerning chemical kinetics investigations, the Cantera package will be considered, permitting to model the combustion process by different types of laminar flames with detailed reaction mechanisms. The same tool will also be used to prepare chemistry tabulations for the CFD investigations planned in the design phase.
A dominant role in TRANSITION methodology is represented by CFD modelling of the combustion process. At first, design-oriented simulations will be realized by BH and UNIFI following common best practices based on the use of CFD code Ansys Fluent®. Mostly high-fidelity methods (LES, SBES) will be used to explore the design space varying burner geometry details and piloting strategies. The state-of-the-art LES code AVBP developed by CERFACS and used also by UNIFI, will be the tool adopted in the validation phase of the project workflow. The code will be updated by ad-hoc reduced reaction mechanisms enabling EGR and multi-fuel capabilities and it will then be validated thanks to high-quality experimental data provided by panned test campaigns. The validated updated version of AVBP will then be used to investigate GT-EGR burners at different operating conditions in real engine configuration, also including the presence of turbine stage to prove impact on efficiency and durability.
A novel aspect of the TRANSITION concept is that the CO2 concentration from the GT-EGR with advanced combustion is significantly higher than standard EGR. This opens the possibility of other capture technologies than amines to be competitive while allowing for novel integration. Systematic approaches to process design based on methodologies developed at SINTEF46 will be used for providing preliminary performance targets and detailed integration. These methodologies will allow for the design of a tightly integrated process with minimal energy penalty. Standard process simulation tools such as ASPEN Hysys, ASPEN Plus and in-house models for membranes, adsorption and calcium looping will be used for simulating the capture process and the GT-EGR with advanced combustion for use in process design.To analyse global socio-economic and environmental effects of the outputs of TRANSITION, SINTEF Ocean will use GVC tools. This is a static inter-country input-output (ICIO) modelling tool, set up to easily implement exogenous effects of price changes, behavioural changes, and technology development. The interlinkage of the global economy calls for a variety of modelling approaches to properly capture the interactions in global value chains (GVC). The current situation will then be compared with the "what-if" scenarios due to the new technology to assess the effects of the expected changes along global value chains.