Sponsor: Glennan Microsystems, Inc.

• Project duration: 10/1/2004 - 9/30/2008
• Total project (est.): $6,330,000
• Requested ATP funds: $3,160,000

Since passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, the only major air pollutants that have not been reduced are nitrogen oxides (NOx). A byproduct of combustion, these compounds pollute the atmosphere and water, with health and environmental effects costing tens of billions of dollars per year, and are particularly detrimental at high altitudes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently published stringent standards for NOx emissions that must be met by 2010. Glennan Microsystems and its partners ZIN Technologies (Brookpark, Ohio) Delavan Inc. (d/b/a Turbine Fuel Technologies/Goodrich Corporation - West Des Moines, Iowa) and Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) propose to develop and demonstrate an active fuel and emission control system that will reduce NOx emissions from gas turbine engines by 70 percent. The AFEC system would allow new and existing aircraft engines, electrical power generators, and marine propulsion engines to meet the new air quality standards. If successful, this technology also would be adaptable to internal combustion engines in cars, trucks, and off-road vehicles, a $110 billion per year global market that accounts for 53 percent of all NOx emissions. The project's core innovation is development of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) silicon carbide (SiC) sensors and actuators to significantly reduce combustion emissions while improving combustion stability. These devices must tolerate very high temperatures (up to 600 degrees Celsius) in the combustion chamber. The project team also plans to design a distributed control system. Integration of SiC MEMS devices with combustion hardware has not yet been demonstrated and would be a major breakthrough. Glennan has been developing SiC-based MEMS devices for the past 5 years. Goodrich has been involved with a combustion control system similar in design. Zin has developed systems and diagnostics for power and propulsion technologies in harsh environments for NASA. GE will provide insight into end-user requirements as well as the commercial potential at no cost. Subcontractors FLX Micro (Solon, Ohio), Pentalim (Findlay, Ohio), Sienna Technologies (Woodinville, Wash.), and University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio) will help overcome the myriad technical and business obstacles involved with bringing an AFEC system to market. Design, fabrication and testing support will take place at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The problem of NOx emission has remained unsolved because the scope of the development effort spans many technical disciplines and requires a very large financial investment that neither sensor/actuator nor turbine engine manufacturers have been willing to make. ATP funding will allow the team to build upon Glennan's success with SiC MEMS devices, extend existing collaborations, and bring in subcontractors who have the expertise and resources necessary for this ambitious project to succeed.

Active Project Participants

• Delavan Inc. (d/b/a Turbine Fuel Technologies Goodrich Corporation) (West Des Moines, Iowa)
• Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Zin Technologies (Brookpark, Ohio)

For project information:

Martin Kress, (216) 898-6440
KressM@battelle.org

ATP Project Manager

Michael McDermott, 301-975-5475
mikemcd@nist.gov

This is the fact sheet for this project as it was announced on September 28, 2004.
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