Advances in Powerplant Technologies for Decarbonization in Transportation and Industrial Sectors

Dear Colleagues,

Concerns about global warming have prompted governments to implement aggressive targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions worldwide in the coming years. However, different solutions are being adopted depending on each particular application.

For road transportation, the most widespread solution currently consists of the partial or total electrification of power plants. Current liquid lithium-ion batteries used for battery-electric vehicle applications face challenges due to low energy density, need for high power charging, complex thermal management strategies and risk for thermal runaway events. Therefore, research efforts focus both on strategies to mitigate these issues on existing battery cells, as well as the development of novel materials and concepts, such as solid-state battery technology. In the case of fuel-cell electric vehicles, one of the main difficulties lies in the high degradation rate of the fuel cell when it is subjected to dynamic load requests, together with the high cost of the proton-exchange membrane and catalyst layers. On the one hand, a better understanding of the different phenomena inducing this degradation is needed. On the other hand, the development of advanced control and energy management strategies, as well as novel materials focused on minimizing the degradation rate, may help to increase the implementation of fuel cell technology in the marketplace.

For other transport sectors, such as railway, aircraft or marine, the current primary solution is the partial or total replacement of existing fossil fuels by alternative fuels that can provide net-zero carbon dioxide emissions on a life-cycle analysis basis. In this sense, different formulations of second-generation biofuels, e-fuels and green hydrogen/ammonia are under investigation. Detailed research efforts are needed not only in the production, storage and distribution aspects, but also in their integration with existing internal combustion engine technologies. The understanding of the new conditions for the fuel injection and combustion processes, the requirements of air management and boosting systems or the capability to abate the exhaust emissions through state-of-the-art exhaust after treatment systems are the subject of investigation for these new engine concepts.

Finally, greenhouse gas emission reductions, as well as the management of harmful emissions, is not only a concern for the transportation sector, but also for industrial processes such as thermal electrical power generation plants or cogeneration systems. Since size and, particularly, weight are less of a concern compared to transportation systems, other possibilities can be put in place. The combustion of hydrocarbon fuels coupled with on-site carbon capture strategies provides a good opportunity to make use of existing combustion technologies while reducing the related greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen combustion can instead be used for clean energy generation, especially in industrial areas close to green hydrogen production sites. Finally, solid oxide fuel cells (which work at much higher temperatures than proton-exchange membrane fuel cells used in the automotive industry) are foreseen as an alternative for combustion engines in cogeneration systems.

This Special Issue encourages works from both industry and academia focused on the analysis of efficiency improvements and pollutant emission formation and control on decarbonized powertrain platforms. These include (but are not limited to):

• Thermal management in electrified powertrain systems;
• Analysis of thermal runaway events for battery-electric powertrains;
• Novel materials for battery and fuel-cell electric vehicles;
• Fuel cell degradation mechanisms and their mitigation;
• Development and emission impact of novel combustion strategies;
• Combustion and emission characterization of alternative fuels (biofuels; e-fuels; H₂; NH₃, …);
• Definition and analysis of exhaust after treatment systems for alternative fuels;
• Oxy-fuel combustion concepts;
• New modeling approaches in powertrain applications: from system level to component level;
• OBD and advanced control strategies;
• New catalyst formulations for emission control;
• Carbon capture methods and integration with internal combustion engines;
• Health and environmental impact of transportation and industrial emissions;
• Life-cycle analysis (LCA) and total ownership cost (TCO) for decarbonized power plants.

Dr. Pedro Piqueras
Dr. Joaquin de la Morena
Guest Editors

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• decarbonized powertrains
• fuel cells
• batteries
• hybridization
• emission control
• exhaust after-treatment systems
• catalysts formulation
• advanced combustion
• low-carbon fuels
• on-board diagnostics
• CO₂ capture