Pulverized biomass flame under imposed acoustic oscillations: Flame morphology and emission characteristics

Abstract

Forced intermittent combustion with periodical variations of pressure, velocity, and air-fuel ratios is a promising method to increase efficiency and reduce emissions from combustion and gasification applications. In this work, flame characteristics and emissions from a pulverized biomass burner are investigated under oscillations induced by an acoustically-driven synthetic jet. Instantaneous images of incandescent light emitted from flame were captured using high-speed cameras. The images were analyzed to identify the liftoff distance, flame length, and shape. The flame liftoff distance decreased under excited conditions, notably at high forcing amplitude applied to small particle size distribution (63-112 μm). In such conditions, acoustic forcing increases particle dispersion as presented in the previous work, providing conditions for earlier ignition due to enhanced fuel-air mixing besides reducing CO emissions. Flue gas emissions were influenced mainly by the particle size distribution, from which the 63-112 μm particle size presented the lowest values of CO and highest levels of NO emissions. The results presented stable flame edge positions for the particle size of 63-112 μm, while wide range particle distributions (0–600, 0-400 μm) had strong fluctuations, indicating high flame instability. The experimental work adds new insights regarding acoustic excitation in swirl burners, which could be used to optimize pulverized fuel combustion.