Pyrolysis experiments on n-heptane, 1-heptene and 1,6-heptadiene have been performed using the UIC High Pressure Shock tube (HPST) at pressures relevant to diesel combustion systems in order to examine the correlation between an increase in the degree of unsaturation in biologically derived diesel fuels and an increase in NO formation through acetylene and the Fenimore mechanism. Complementary fuel-rich oxidation experiments were then conducted at nominal reaction pressures of 10 atm using the Jet Stirred Reactor (JSR) facility at CNRS in Orleans, France. The oxidation studies were made possible by the NSF International Research & Education in Engineering (IREE) program for collaborative research. Through cooperation, originally fostered by the NSF-IREE award, an international and inter-institution collaboration and exchanged has been initiated that advances the international scientific community through both cultural and scientific exploration.

Kenneth Brezinsky received his B.S. (magna cum laude) with honors in
Chemistry from City College of C.U.N.Y. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, The City University of New York. After completion of his Ph.D, he became a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago where he is a professor of Mechanical Engineering and studies gas phase shock tube chemical kinetics.
Raghu Sivaramakrishnan received his B.S. with honors in Chemical
Engineering from the University of Madras, India. He received his M.S and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was recently awarded the Bernard Lewis Fellowship by the Combustion Institute in 2006. His current research focuses on determination of elementary reaction rate coefficient.

Stephen Garner received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006. He has been a member of the UIC High Pressure Shock Tube group since 2005 and began his thesis research on biodiesel surrogates in 2006.

NSF CBET-553439

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

S. Garner, R. Sivaramakrishnan and K. Brezinsky, "Biologically derived diesel fuels and NO formation", Trip report presented at the NSF IREE 2007 Grantees Conference, October 30 - November 1, 2007, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

• (2009), "Biologically derived diesel fuels and NO formation," http://globalhub.org/resources/943.

1. France 5
2. iree 2007 109
3. trip report 221