Our Story
Historical roots
The Department of Energy Engineering has a rich history in combustion research and in the development of heat engines for practical applications. Over the past hundred years, several departments have been established and merged within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The contributions of, e.g., Donát Bánki, György Jendrassik, and János Miklós Beér are world famous. Due to the conflicts after the Second World War, several talented students and researchers had to leave the country, including those from our university.
Our laboratory, named after György Jendrassik, always focused on developing heat engines and novel concepts, including gas turbines, steam turbines, furnaces, boilers, and internal combustion engines. The fundamental combustion research focused on combustion chamber noise and pollutant emissions. Besides research, our department has always had a strong relationship with the industry, which has helped us focus on real systems.
Early years
The Department of Energy Engineering participated in an EU5 research program (ENK5-CT-2000-00311, 2002-2005) in which a Capstone C-30 micro gas turbine was modified to run on wood gas with an LHV as low as 6.3 MJ/m3. Besides the gas-fueled micro gas turbine, a liquid-fueled one was also acquired, originally designed for diesel oil and kerosene. The research was continued by modifying the liquid fuel system to utilize aqueous alcohol, a by-product of the alcohol industry, which they are obliged to dispose of. Upon the success of this project, an investigation into a significantly less volatile fuel, crude vegetable oil, was initiated, which led to the PhD research of Attila Kun-Balog under the supervision of Dr. Krisztián Sztankó. To save the micro gas turbine from flooding with oil, one of its burners was removed and subjected to exhaustive tests. During this period, Viktor Józsa joined this research as a BSc student. The project continued with the development of a new combustion test rig, which was hampered by funding constraints. However, the group mastered the combustion of crude rapeseed oil with low emissions and minimal contamination of the equipment. Then Viktor finished his MSc and started a PhD under the same supervisor, Dr. Krisztián Sztankó.
From the lab to international recognition
The complexity of liquid-fuel combustion is briefly illustrated in the left image. It was soon realized that the research required substantial support to understand each process; therefore, numerous student projects were announced from the fall semester of 2013. Among the students, András Urbán, Dávid Csemány, Gyöngyvér Hidegh, Dániel Füzesi, Erika Rácz, Anna Réka Kardos, Bence Sziffer, and Márk Kovács started PhD studies. Their topics in order: atomization, evaporation, experimental combustion, CFD, atomization statistics, image processing, battery modeling, and thermomechanical analysis. They greatly contributed to achieving international recognition.
Establishment of the Combustion Research Group
The formation of the Combustion Research Group was never stated explicitly. However, its birth can be considered the start of the OTKA-FK 124704 grant, funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, which was on 01 September 2017. Viktor Józsa took the lead, Attila Kun-Balog and Dr. Krisztián Sztankó joined as senior researchers. In 2019Q4, the test rig successfully completed hot tests after 2 years of designing and building the system. The primary goal was to achieve a robust, versatile, and highly modular dual-fuel design that allows setting several operating parameters without restrictions. The initial aim was to design a standard swirl burner to investigate the combustion of various renewable fuels, but the airblast atomizer produced a completely different flame shape, as shown on the right. At elevated pressure and low equivalence ratio, distributed combustion appeared, a unique feature observed by fellow researchers using either flue gas recirculation (inner or outer) or combustion air dilution with an inert gas (typically N2 or CO2). The NOX emission of distributed combustion was 50% lower than that of V-shaped flames, and the single-digit emission easily fulfills all the current emission standards. Our goal is to understand the operation of distributed combustion better and publish the design guidelines of such burners.
What does the future hold?
Climate change forces humanity to leave the coal in the mines and the crude oil in the fields. However, there are no known viable alternatives available at the moment that can replace combustion, especially in transportation and air travel. The number of wind turbines and solar cells is rapidly growing, and their costs are falling. Nevertheless, our power consumption continues to increase rapidly, making the situation more complicated. Therefore, it is always a top priority to understand the fundamentals and develop versatile solutions that can also be used in completely different fields.
If you have questions or feel motivated to do some research together, do not hesitate to contact us.