Liquid Combustion Aerosol Standard Generator (CAST): a low-cost alternative combustion emission source for aeronautical fuel evaluation

Abstract : Emissions from aircraft engines impact climate and air quality in and around airports (Airbus GMF 2018, Vorster et al. 2013). There are different options available to reduce aircraft emissions, based notably on the development of sustainable fuels. The evaluation of the physicochemical characteristics of the particulate emissions from such fuels in real conditions is difficult to achieve and very expensive. The mini-CAST burner, suitable for the combustion of liquid fuel (Jing 2003), is an interesting alternative to obtain soot emissions comparable to those from aircraft engine. The design of the liquid CAST is based on the conventional propane model but here, the propane flame is used to vaporize the fuel in the combustion chamber to further generate a flame. A quenching flow of nitrogen stops the combustion reactions and a flow of dilution air accelerates emissions in the measurement line and avoids soot agglomeration. This work aimed to characterize CAST emissions for aircraft fuels of different chemical compositions and to study their stability and reproducibility.