Goals
This project started as a collaboration between Dr. Robert P. Lucht (Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University) and Dr. Jerald A. Caton (Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University) and my group at TU Darmstadt.
The goal is the development of real-time sensors for species in the gas phase. We are aiming at absorption based sensors in spectral regions accessible only by non-linear frequency conversion.
As an example we discuss our Opens internal link in current windowNO sensor in somewhat more detail. This work aims at a realtime sensor for NO in the exhaust of large combustion engines and turbines as used for instance in power plants in order to implement combustion control schemes to optimize the efficiency of the engines while reducing the NO emission of the exhaust. The continuous absorption technique is appropriate for such a task as we are not seeking time resolved information on the exhaust process itself, but rather the information of the entire concentration of NO in the exhaust.
Another possible application for this sensor system is a stand-alone, real-time sensor for the enforcement of the future emission standards.