Analysis of vegetable oil mixture combustion in a conventional 50 KW thermal energy installation

Abstract

This work presents the combustion results of a vegetable oils blend in a low-pressure auxiliary air fluid pulverisation burner (o emulsion burner). This blend was prepared from soy and sunflower refined vegetable oils (54.4%) and sunflower and rapeseed crude vegetable oils (45.4%). The influence of varying the fuel flow rate, the secondary airflow rate as well as the fuel preheating temperature on combustion, performance and pollutant emissions was studied. Additionally, a comparison between the combustion results obtained from this mixture of vegetable oils and those previously obtained in combustion for pure vegetable oils was also carried out. For all of the conditions tested, the vegetable oil mixture combustion performance exceeded 77% and NOx emissions were extremely low (<60 ppm). In the established optimal operating conditions: un-preheated vegetable oil and Amid airflow rate, CO emissions were virtually negligible (5–17 ppm), regardless of the fuel flow used. The pollutant emissions and the combustion performance of the vegetable oils blend are comparable to those obtained in the combustion of refined soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oils, all of them with a high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids (mainly oleic and linoleic).