Cleaner crude oil combustion during superheated steam atomization

Abstract

Crude oil is an attractive fuel for energy production, since its use does not require additional processing costs. Existing technologies for burning liquid fuel do not always ensure the achievement of the modern ecological and energy performance when using highly viscous and substandard fuels. This relates to unstable ignition and combustion of such fuels in the combustion chamber, relatively fast coking of the burner surfaces, etc. The work deals with investigation of crude oil burning in a flow of superheated steam as a promising way to reduce NOx and increase the completeness of fuel combustion. The experiments were carried out using an original burner where liquid fuel is sprayed due to interaction with a high-velocity flow of superheated steam. This method of spraying allows the creation of a highly dispersed two-phase flow and prevents nozzle chocking and coking when using sub-standard fuel and waste. At the same time, steam gasification of products of fuel thermal decomposition allows the reduction of toxic emissions, increasing carbon burnout. The regimes of crude oil burning in a modernized burner that provide high completeness of fuel combustion (~44 MJ/kg) with a low content of NOx and CO in the combustion products have been determined. The amount of these toxic components corresponds to class 1 of EN 267. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness of the investigated method of fuel spraying by a superheated steam jet for environmentally friendly crude oil burning, including this process in the low-power burners (~15 kW). Such devices can be used for the cleaner elimination of liquid hydrocarbon waste with the receipt of thermal energy.