A research team of Fuel and Combustion Laboratory (FCL) of the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (UBFME) performs basic, fundamental, scientific, and development research to improve education and scientific study in the field of:

  • Fossil and alternative (biomass and biofuels) fuel characterization to acquire necessary data for their utilization for energy production, or to use them as raw material for the production of different commodities with high technology readiness level
  • Fuel quality control
  • Technologies for biomass utilization and biofuels production
  • Fuel utilization possibilities – household heating, transport, and co-combustion
  • Experimental and computational research in combustion to control the process efficiency and the emission of pollutants
  • Environmental engineering
  • Chemical kinetics
  • Burners, and fireboxes improvements.

Special attention is paid to the characterization of solid fuels, thermochemical conversion processes such as pyrolysis, gasification, torrefaction, and combustion, as well as the utilization of additives, blending processes, and physical and chemical activation of biologically based materials to obtain value-added products for use in various sectors.

The FCL is equipped with modern measuring equipment for flow rate, pressure, temperature, flue gas analysis, infra-red thermography, visualization, with data acquisition systems, as well as modern TGA/DSC analysis including:

  • Three portable flue gas analyzers testo 350 for the measurement of O2, CO2, CO, NO, NO2, and SO2 in the flue gas, flue gas temperature, and draft in the flue gas duct
  • One portable flue gas analyzer testo 360 for the measurement of O2, CO2, CO, NO, NO2, SO2, water vapor, and unburned hydrocarbons in the flue gas, flue gas temperature, and draft in the flue gas duct
  • Multi-channel measuring system with data acquisition testo 454 for the measurement of temperature, pressure, flow rate, relative humidity, CO and CO2 content in the ambient air
  • Multi-purpose two-channel measuring instrument testo 400 for the measurement of temperature, pressure, flow rate, relative humidity, CO and CO2 content in the surrounding air
  • Fine particle measuring system testo 380
  • Simultaneous thermal analyzer (combined TGA and DSC) Netzsch STA Jupiter F3

Besides, the FCL has up-to-date versions of software such as Fluent, Aspen Plus, NETZSCH Proteus, and NETZSCH Kinetics Neo, as well as its software, developed in MATLAB and Python.

The FCL research team participated in the implementation of numerous research and development projects supported by the Serbian Government and Industry, USA DOE, and EU (EUREKA, FP6, FP7, H2020, and INTERREG programs, EBRD). Projects granted were in various fields, covering combustion of lignite, biomass, and SRF, multi-fuel premixed burners, small scale biomass boilers and furnaces, fluidized bed combustion, deSOx and deNOx systems, characterization of coal, solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels, and pollutant formation. A major role in the previous projects was database development of sustainable and cost-effective biomass supply for Serbia, selection of optimal biomass utilization in different regions of Serbia, a definition of the base criteria for selection of the best technologies, policy development, especially in energy and environmental sectors, and awareness-raising. A team of researchers from the FCL was engaged in the preparation of Serbia’s First and Second National Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Members of the FCL team are professors elected for the scientific field within the Departement of Engineering Materials and Welding, Tribology, Fuels and Combustion, and researchers engaged in scientific research projects. They have presented results of the scientific research at numerous national and international conferences and authored more than 100 papers published in scientific journals. Their activities are constantly improving collaboration with government organizations, industrial, and private companies.