Exploratory burner for enhanced-flame radiation. Final report, June 1988-December 1990

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:7282986

Delichatsios, M A; Ris, J de; Orloff, L

An exploratory methane burner was constructed for increasing the flame radiation output in turbulent diffusion flames from burners and in furnaces. Prior to its combustion as a turbulent diffusion flame in ambient air, methane fuel was preheated to high temperatures (up to 1500 K) to facilitate the formation of soot particles which contribute to a significant increase in flame radiation before they burn out completely inside the flames. In some tests, methane was also premixed with pure oxygen (up to 30% of the fuel mass). The exploratory burner was built by using high temperature ceramics while fuel preheating was maintained by electric heaters. Radiation measurements in the burner have shown that: (1) methane (and presumably natural gas) preheating to temperatures 1000 C or more can produce turbulent diffusion flames having radiant fractions up to 44%; (2) oxygen premixing in addition to fuel preheating, up to 30% of the fuel mass flow rate did not increase the radiant fraction, owing perhaps to soot oxidation as soot is being formed.

• Research Organization: Factory Mutual Research Corp., Norwood, MA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7282986
• Report Number(s): PB-92-212968/XAB; CNN: GRI-5088-260-1749
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
034000* -- Natural Gas-- Combustion
ALKANES
BURNERS
CERAMICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
DESIGN
DIFFUSION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLAMES
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUEL-AIR RATIO
FUELS
GAS BURNERS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HEAT TRANSFER
HEAT TREATMENTS
HYDROCARBONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METHANE
NATURAL GAS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXYGEN
PERFORMANCE TESTING
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
SOOT
TESTING
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TURBULENT FLOW