Some of the most prominent scientists in Europe and the UK have joined forces at the Center of Excellence in Combustion (CoEC) to discover new cleaner engines with improved capabilities and design, as well as a new type of e-fuels with reduced carbon footprint. This is a three-year project with a vision for significant outcomes by 2023/2024.
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One of the main aims of the project is to help reshape Europe’s power and transportation sectors towards a cleaner future as per Europe’s 2050 decarbonisation goals. The scientists address the above challenge by combining the know-how of some of the best specialists in combustion with the know-how of some of the best specialists in AI, Machine Learning and Supercomputing.
The most advanced modelling and simulation technologies will be applied to the study of combustion processes in various fields, such as in sustainable fuels, new combustion technologies and hydrogen combustion. The work involves developing models (software) for precise and adequate simulation of the combustion process and the mixture in the engines’ combustion chamber. Supercomputers with a capacity of over 50 million billion operationsper second will be used.
The project will provide numerous benefits to both industry and society:
Firstly, the results will accelerate decarbonisation. It is now known that between 25% and 28% of greenhouse gas emissions are due to combustion from the transport sector.
Secondly, the study will reduce the time and cost of the design of the new generation of engines. It will, for example, decrease the number of engines that need to be tested on the stands. It will also generate advanced modelling and simulation software that can be integrated into industrial workflows, significantly impacting the speed of the decarbonisation of the power and transport sectors.
Thirdly, the project will improve the EU combustion codes by preparing an exascale-ready software that can address fundamental challenges related to decarbonisation.
Fourthly, Exascale computing would allow CoEC to explore the viability and reliability of alternative fuels, such as environmentally friendly fuels and biofuels, in practical applications like never before.
Fifthly, CoEC will develop advanced simulation software to study hydrogen combustion.
The generation of green hydrogen from renewable energy sources or by Power-to-X (P2X) technologies requires highly flexible and clean power plants that compensate for the fluctuations in the “time-fluctuating” renewable energy sources.
In order to address the challenges for achieving cleaner and more efficient power and propulsion systems, CoEC lists its specific objectives as follows:
- To target scientific breakthroughs in combustion enabled by Exascale computing
- To achieve significant advances in bringing combustion simulation technologies to market
- To develop HPC software and algorithms for the efficient exploitation of Exascale systems.
- To promote and strengthen collaboration between the well-established European combustion and HPC communities, creating the European Exascale Combustion Community.
- To develop a services portfolio that includes standardised workflows and databases-targeting relevant stakeholders of the academic, industrial, and Public Governance Bodies.
Additional information
CoEC works on 11 state-of-the-art European HPC codes in combustion. The consortium isformed by the main developers of the codes and advanced users that pursue to increase the Technology Readiness Level of the codes for certain applications.
CoEC’s 13 Exascale Challenge Demonstrators (ECD) are proofs of concept aimed at testing codes on Exascale hardware prototypes. Targeted simulation studies will evaluate the accuracy, reliability, and performance of the codes and, eventually, measure progress in terms of Technology Readiness Level increases.
- Large-scale (Direct Numerical Simulation) DNS calculation of formation, growth and transport of particulates
- Prediction of soot formation in practical applications
- Detailed chemistry DNS calculation of gas phase pollutants: NOx and CO
- Prediction of pollutants and design of low-emission burners
- Detailed chemistry DNS calculation of turbulent hydrogen and hydrogen-blends combustion
- Use of alternative fuels, H2 and H2 blends in practical systems
- Fuel atomisation and evaporation in practical applications
- Plasma assisted combustion
- Fuel ignition with high-energy sparks
- Combustion of metal particles
- Flame-wall interactions
- Near-wall reacting flow modelling
- Machine Learning and ROM in combustion simulations at relevant conditions
About CoEC
CoEC is a collective effort to exploit Exascale computing technologies to address fundamental challenges related to the simulation of combustion systems, which will create a positive impact on the EU’s decarbonisation goals.
Coordinated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and granted with a budget of over €5.6M by the European Commission, the project will run to 30 September 2023. Other partners in the consortium include leading institutions in the fields of computational combustion and High-Performance Computing such as Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancéeen Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS), RWTH Aachen University, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Cambridge, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Technical University of Darmstadt, ETH Zürich, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) and National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
For more information, please visit https://coec-project.eu
