John W. Daily
Center for Combustion and Environmental Research
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Colorado Boulder
Thermal Decomposition of Biomass and Fuel Molecules
Our work seeks to establish the reaction mechanisms for the thermal decomposition of complex hydrocarbons and oxygenated fuels. These fuels are of importance in practical combustion processes. We have pioneered the use of a very small, or micro-flow reactor for studying the pyrolysis of complex organic molecules. This reactor has very short residence times (roughly 100 μsec or less) allowing us to focus on the primary decomposition reactions. Our micro-reactor is equipped with photoionization mass spectroscopy (PIMS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR) diagnostics that allow for the detection of all pyrolysis products, including atomic and molecular radicals and metastables.
Wild Fire Modeling
Since 2010, wildland fires have consumed over 29 million acres of timber, grass, and brush in the U.S., equivalent to nearly half the surface area of Colorado Over the same period, $8 billion was spent on fire suppression by federal agencies and almost 11 million additional acres of wildland fuel were burned. Our goal is to understand and characterize wildland fire spread at scales from roughly 1m to below 1mm by using Direct Numerical Simulation to directly resolve all relevant fluid and chemical processes. My interest is in developing wood pyrolysis models and gas phase chemical kinetic mechanisms that can be used in DNS simulations.
Optical Biopsy of Prostate Cancer
Professor Daily was a founder of Precision Biopsy, now Preview Medical, a company formed to commercialize our optical detection of prostate cancer technology. Called the ClariCore Biopsy System, it involves the insertion of optical fibers into a conventional biopsy needle.