C3 Releases Reduced Chemical Mechanisms for Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of Alternative Fuels

MADISON, WI, UNITED STATES, March 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Computational Chemistry Consortium (C3) has published two reduced chemical mechanisms, C3MechLite and C3MechCore, based on their detailed kinetic model for surrogate fuels, C3MechV4.0.1. C3 is led by Convergent Science, with a research team comprised of chemical kinetic experts from the University of Galway, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Politecnico di Milano, and RWTH Aachen University. In addition to the C3 team, researchers from the China University of Mining and Technology and McGill University contributed to the development of C3MechLite and C3MechCore. The reduced chemical mechanisms are tailored for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of reacting systems.

C3MechLite contains 61 species and 519 reactions. The reduced mechanism can predict the combustion characteristics of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methane, natural gas, nitrogen oxides, and their mixtures for a wide range of conditions.

“We wanted to create a reduced mechanism that is comparable in size to GRI-Mech, but with chemistry that more accurately predicts fuel reactivity, particularly at gas turbine- and engine-relevant conditions of temperature and pressure,” says Professor Henry Curran, C3 Technical Director. “We also expanded the fuels that this compact mechanism will cover. C3MechLite is a predictive mechanism for use in CFD for the combustion of zero-carbon, low-carbon, and carbon-neutral fuels—including hydrogen, ammonia, syngas, and natural gas.”

C3MechCore contains 118 species and 1,006 reactions. This mechanism includes all of the species in C3MechLite and has been additionally validated for methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, ethane, and propane. These species are additional natural gas components as well as common biofuels and alternative diesel fuels.

C3MechLite and C3MechCore are structured as integrated component libraries, using a block approach that allows users to customize the mechanism and further reduce its size. This helps optimize the computational efficiency of the mechanism for specific use cases without incurring a loss of accuracy.

“We’re very excited for the combustion community to have access to these reduced mechanisms,” says Dr. Kelly Senecal, Co-Founder and Executive Director of C3. “The detailed mechanism, C3MechV4.0.1, is great because it’s so comprehensive, but using such a large mechanism in a CFD simulation isn’t feasible. C3MechLite and C3MechCore are ready to go right out of the box for use in 3D CFD simulations, which will help streamline the process for researchers to study combustion systems with alternative fuels.”

C3MechLite and C3MechCore are available to download for free on the C3 website. In addition, the details of the formulation and validation of the reduced mechanisms have been published in the journal "Combustion and Flame."

Elizabeth Favreau
Convergent Science
+1 608-230-1579
elizabeth.favreau@convergecfd.com
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