Effect of Methane on Combustion of Glycerol and Methanol Blends Using a Novel Swirl Burst Injector in a Model Dual-Fuel Gas Turbine Combustor

S. M. Rafiul Islam, Ishaan Patel and Lulin Jiang ()
Additional contact information
S. M. Rafiul Islam: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
Ishaan Patel: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
Lulin Jiang: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA

Clean Technol., 2024, vol. 6, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel, has moderate energy but high viscosity, making clean combustion challenging. Quickly evaporating fine fuel sprays mix well with air and burn cleanly and efficiently. Unlike conventional air-blast atomizers discharging a jet core/film, a newly developed swirl burst (SB) injector generates fine sprays at the injector’s immediate exit, even for high-viscosity fuels, without preheating, using a unique two-phase atomization mechanism. It thus resulted in ultra-clean combustion for glycerol/methanol (G/M) blends, with complete combustion for G/M of 50/50 ratios by heat release rate (HRR). Lower combustion efficiencies were observed for G/M 60/40 and 70/30, representing crude glycerol. Hence, this study investigates the effect of premixed methane amount from 0–3 kW, and the effect of atomizing gas to liquid mass ratio (ALR) on the dual-fuel combustion efficiency of G/M 60/40-methane in a 7-kW lab-scale swirl-stabilized gas turbine combustor to facilitate crude glycerol use. Results show that more methane and increased ALR cause varying flame lift-off height, length, and gas product temperature. Regardless, mainly lean-premixed combustion, near-zero CO and NOx emissions (≤2 ppm), and ~100% combustion efficiency are enabled for all the cases by SB atomization with the assistance of a small amount of methane.

Keywords: swirl burst (SB) injector; lean-premixed combustion; dual-fuel combustion; high viscosity; near-zero emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/6/4/69/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/6/4/69/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:6:y:2024:i:4:p:69-1464:d:1504517

Access Statistics for this article

Clean Technol. is currently edited by Ms. Shary Song

More articles in Clean Technol. from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().