After eighteen years with Penn State, Dr. André Boehman, professor in the John and Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering and leading researcher in engines and fuel science, has accepted a position as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Although he’ll be leaving the university in July, Boehman plans to continue to collaborate with Penn State on future projects.
Dr. Chunshan Song, director of the EMS Energy Institute, spoke highly of Boehman. “We will miss him at Penn State but we wish him all the best in his continued success at University of Michigan, and look forward to continuing our interaction and collaboration.”
As director of the transportation program and manager of the diesel combustion and emissions laboratory (DCEL) at the EMS Energy Institute, Boehman’s research revolves around alternative and reformulated fuels, and combustion and pollution control. Specifically his focus has been on alternative diesel fuels, diesel combustion, and diesel exhaust aftertreatment. Boehman was integral in setting up the DCEL, which is devoted to studies of fuel chemistry, combustion, and pollution control for diesel engines, and more generally for compression ignition combustion processes. Typically there are more than a dozen students, graduates, undergraduates, and lab assistants, involved in research at the DCEL.
Boehman has made many notable contributions with his work at Penn State, including his work with dimethyl ether (DME), a derivative of natural gas. Boehman is actively involved in the International DME Association and worked on engineering fuel systems with Volvo Trucks and Volvo Powertrain. In addition, he’s currently working with Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc. in a techno-economic evaluation of the use of natural gas in a “dual fuel” combustion process, which involves feeding both natural gas and diesel fuel simultaneously to the engine. In October 2002, he led a successful project with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. and support from the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory to convert a Penn State shuttle bus to operate on a blend of DME and diesel fuel. This was the first vehicle in the world to use a DME-diesel blend and the first transit vehicle to carry passengers operating in whole or in part on DME.