Clustered Porous Radiant Burner: A cleaner alternative for cooking systems in small and medium scale applications

Abstract

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) burners in modern days are extensively used in both household as well as in industries. Conventional LPG burners (CB) work on Free Flame Combustion, emit higher emissions and offer low thermal efficiency, and lower turn-down ratio than the burners based on newer technologies like Porous Media Combustion (PMC). Recently a Clustered Porous Radiant Burner (CPRB), working on PMC, was shown to yield higher thermal efficiency and lower emissions compared to a CB (Deb et al., 2020). The present work offers a study on the capability of the CPRB to operate under an extended range of power inputs, and thereby warranting its use in cooking systems for small and medium scale applications. The turn-down ratio and thermal performance (efficiency and emissions) were determined experimentally, while the flame movement was estimated with the help of numerical simulations. The environmental damage reduction ability was analysed using SimaPro LCA software. The CPRB was found to operate under stable submerged combustion mode for the power input range of 8–20 kW. Compared to a CB, CPRB yielded a maximum thermal efficiency improvement of 26% and reduction in the CO, CxHy and NOx emissions of 78.7%, 48.9%, and 74.1%, respectively. The CPRB was capable of saving 3.9 kg fuel per 19 kg commercial cylinder. Because of these advantages, the CPRB is well suited for cooking systems in small and medium scale applications where input power ranges between 8 and 20 kW.