Experimental studies of burning plant pellets in a domestic boiler

Abstract

In recent years, biofuels have increasingly been used as fuel in Ukraine. Ukraine is an agro-industrial country with great potential for the production and use of pellets of plant origin. Our country ranks 6th in the world for the production of such biofuels as pellets, but most of them (about 85 %) are exported abroad. This is due to the low demand for pellets in the domestic market. Cereal straw can be used in municipal energy. The amount of straw left after harvest is sufficient for its use as fuel. This biofuel in its composition and calorific value is close to such traditional fuels as wood and peat. Also, raw materials for bio-pellets can be sunflower husks and energy crops. The main objectives of this work are experimental studies of the combustion of different types of agropellets. An experimental installation of a solid fuel boiler with a pellet burner was developed and implemented at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to study the peculiarities of pellet combustion. With the help of the developed measurement system based on a comb with thermocouples, which is located above the torch in the boiler, the temperature regime in the boiler volume was studied and the peculiarities of the pellet burning process in the burner were determined. As a result of the work, experimental studies of the peculiarities of burning pellets of agricultural origin, namely straw (barley, wheat) and pellets from corn cobs were carried out. On the basis of the constructed graphic dependences the characteristic features of temperature modes of work of a household copper at burning of agropellets were defined. The use of the results is possible in the communal and industrial heat energy, social and budgetary sphere and individual household sector.