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Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR) is a privately owned small business, founded in 1980, that supplies contract research, product development and analytical services to corporate research centers, research institutes, and government laboratories. AFR has successfully developed innovative analytical instruments and software products, and has been particularly recognized as a world leader in advanced Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
AFR was a winner of the coveted Small Business Administration's 2000 Tibbetts Award for commercialization of innovative technologies, and, since 1994, AFR has been a four-time winner of the R&D 100 Award, for developing one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year. AFR today supplies its services to leading industrial and academic clients throughout the world.
Using Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR) conducted research and development on innovative optical designs, hardware designs, and software designs that resulted in a package of new technology that provides benefits to the Air Force. AFR developed the Multi-Gas Analyzer (MGA), based on extractive Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, to simultaneously measure multiple chemical species in exhaust gases. The MGA provides the capability of replacing conventional exhaust gas analyses that required significantly more equipment, more manpower, and more time to measure exhaust species of interest. The Air Force accepted delivery of new technology at the conclusion of Phase II, put it into immediate service, and continues to reap the benefits of the new capabilities provided by this SBIR project. A particular focus of this effort became to improve exhaust gas characterization and monitoring capabilities during Air Force development and testing of gas turbine (jet) engines. Significant SBIR collaboration took place between AFR and the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at Arnold Air Force Base, TN, the Air Force's premier flight simulation test facility. AEDC's engine test facilities are used routinely for testing combustor and full propulsion systems including turbojet, turbofan, and ramjet air breathing engines. Gas phase emissions testing before flight is a key responsibility of AEDC.
AEDC is using the MGA to measure turbine engine emissions data required to satisfy environmental regulations and learn how to optimize the combustor and augmentor efficiencies of developmental engines. AFR advanced the AEDC/Air Force measurement capabilities. Today this new technology is being pursued to become a recommended practice to government and industry for the analysis and evaluation of gaseous emissions from aircraft engines. In support of this, the DoD appropriations bill for FY2002 included a Phase III earmark for the delivery of additional Multi-Gas Analyzers to the Air Force. AEDC is working to develop an Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) to codify the use of these techniques, which will allow the replacement of conventional exhaust gas measurements throughout the aerospace industry. The use of the MGA for turbine engine exhaust measurements produces savings 1) in the cost of the required measurement equipment; 2) in the manpower needed to conduct the engine emission tests; 3) in the fuel needed to run the tests; and, 4) for reducing the risk of failure of a developmental engine while the tests are conducted. Multi-Gas Analyzers were recently used to measure emissions while optimizing the F-119 engine, under development for the F-22 fighter and the XTE-67/SE-1 engine under development for the JSF program. Congressional Phase III funding is being used to develop and seek approval for the ARP and to develop an improved version of the MGA, to be called the Advanced FT-IR Gas Analyzer. The Advanced FT-IR Gas Analyzer will further decrease the time of analysis, increase the sensitivity, and add additional analyte species to the capabilities of the MGA.
Karin Dutten
Advanced Fuel Research, Inc.
87 Church Street
East Hartford, CT 06108
Phone: (860) 528-9806
Website: http://www.afrinc.com/
Email: Karin@afrinc.com
