Effect of Fuel Preheating on Emissions from Combustion of Viscous Biofuels

摘要

This study focused on characterizing CO and NO_x emissions from combustion of vegetable oil (soybean oil) for stationary power generation and process industry applications. The high viscosity of vegetable oil (VO) makes it unsuitable for direct combustion using conventional fuel preparation systems. Thus, we preheat the fuel to reduce its viscosity and to improve fuel atomization. Experiments are conducted in a laboratory scale burner operated at atmospheric pressure. Measurements are obtained for fuel inlet temperature varying from 58 to 121 C and for air to liquid mass ratio varying from 2.4 to 3.5. Results show that an increase in the fuel inlet temperature decreases NO_x and CO emissions, which can be attributed to improved fuel atomization resulting from decreased viscosity at higher fuel temperatures.