Research interests:

  • Combustion chemistry of oxygenated biomass-derived fuels.  Influence of these fuels on the formation of toxic products and ultrafine soot nanoparticles.
  • Reduction of pollutant emissions and their chemical risks. Development of clean fuels and cleaner combustion technologies with alternative fuels.

Research:

The research of Luc-Sy TRAN has been focused on combustion processes with the purpose of solving two essential problems for the future, energy demand and environmental protection, both of which are strongly related in this case since better combustion implies an energy gain and a limitation of pollution. He has pursued studies directed to understanding combustion chemistry and developing combustion kinetic models, especially for advanced oxygenated fuels. He has supplied massive experimental data obtained in different reactors (flame, flow reactor, etc.) and proposed to the community 10 validated mechanisms for the combustion of several oxygenated biofuels, e.g. furan, 2-methylfuran (MF), 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), tetrahydrofuran (THF), 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF), tetrahydropyran (THP), diethylether (DEE), dibutylether (DBE), combined fuel mixtures furanic fuels/gasoline surrogate, and DEE/butanol/butane. Unusual or surprising oxidation chemistries were observed when investigating the oxygenated biofuels, e.g. (i) a double negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior in the low-temperature oxidation of DEE that has never been seen before for this fuel, and (ii) a high ability of furanic fuels to form soot precursors at high temperature that contrasted with a generally-accepted trend for oxygenated fuels. 

At LRGP-CNRS-Nancy, he studied combustion chemistry of oxygenated fuels in flames using gas chromatography (GC) coupled to different detectors (TCD, FID, MS). Then, he investigated the pyrolysis chemistry of model compounds of biomass in a bench‑scale pyrolysis setup using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) at LCT-Ghent, Belgium. Then, he has studied, at PC1-Department of Chemistry-Bielefeld University, Germany, the formation of toxic oxygenated species and small soot precursors during the combustion of fuel mixtures (biofuels+fossil fuels), using dedicated electron ionization (EI) molecular-beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) coupled with GC, photoionization (PI)-MBMS, and photoelectron photoion coincidence (PEPICO) spectroscopy. The EI-MBMS-GC setup is located at Bielefeld University, while the PI-MBMS and PEPICO setups are located at NSRL (Hefei, China), NSRRC (Hsinchu , Taiwan), and SOLEIL Synchrotron (GIF-sur-YVETTE, France), respectively. He has developed detailed chemical kinetic models for the pyrolysis and combustion of the studied fuels, especially that of the new oxygenated biofuels. These models can be used in prediction of fuel consumption, product formation, especially toxic species and soot precursors, and can be a helpful piece in the development of a comprehensive soot model for the combustion of biofuels and biomass.

Since working at PC2A-CNRS-University of Lille (10/2017), he is focusing on a more difficult (but related) topic that is the impact of the combustion of oxygenated biomass-derived fuels on the formation of aromatics and ultrafine soot nanoparticles. A comprehensive approach is being used, which involves novel flame and pyrolysis setups combined with highly sensitive laser-/synchrotron-based techniques and on the other hand the development of new kinetic mechanism based on theoretical calculations.

[Tran et al. CnF 2017, 181, 251-269] Comparison of mole fractions of selected undesirable and hazardous compounds for DMF, MF, and furan oxidation.
[Tran et al. CnF 2017, 175, 47-59] Joint reactions of n-butane (NC4H10), DEE, and n-butanol (NC4H9OH) in the mixture flames.
[Sood et al. ECM 2023] Examples of chromatograms (middle panel) obtained by 1D and 2D GCs in the doped anisole flame at 1.5 mm above the burner. The nomenclature of some important species is given. Some mass spectra (MS, top and bottom panels) for the selected oxygenated aromatics obtained by GC-MS are presented.