Swirling Flame Combustion of Heavy Fuel Oil Blended with Diesel: Effect of Asphaltene Concentration

Xinyan Pei (), Hongyu Tian and William L. Roberts
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Xinyan Pei: Institute for Aero Engine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Hongyu Tian: Institute for Aero Engine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
William L. Roberts: Clean Combustion Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Heavy fuel oil has an energy density content comparable to distillate fuels but a very high viscosity that necessitates extra heating before spray combustion inside a boiler. Heavy fuel oil is also characterized by high asphaltenes, carbon residues, trace metals, such as vanadium and nickel, fuel-bound nitrogen, and sulfur. Asphaltenes are heavy polycyclic aromatic compounds with embedded heteroatoms and significantly affect the physico-chemical properties of heavy fuels; this makes them very difficult to burn and leads to the formation of large cenospheres (lightweight, inert, hollow spheres), due to an inefficient burning process. The primary goal of this study is to experimentally investigate the influence of the asphaltene concentration on the combustion of HFO under a swirling flame, finally reducing gaseous and solid pollution. We tested HFO samples containing asphaltene concentrations of 4, 6, 8, 16, and 24 wt.%, prepared by blending the light oil of diesel and pure asphaltenes with HFO. This work provides quantitative information about the effect of different asphaltene contents on the fuel properties of viscosity, density, heating value, thermogravimetry with air and N 2 , and swirling flame combustion characteristics, including the analysis of gaseous and solid particle emissions. The results indicated that the high asphaltene content in the fuel was the critical factor for the high viscosity and incomplete combustion and also increased the density of the fuel sample. Reducing the asphaltene content in HFO improves its spray characteristics and combustion performance and reduces the solid emissions containing sulfur and metal elements.

Keywords: heavy fuel oil; asphaltene; swirling flame; blend fuel; fuel characteristics; pollutant emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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