Towards the Development of Miniature Scale Liquid Fuel Combustors for Power Generation Application—A Review

Vinay Sankar, Sreejith Sudarsanan, Sudipto Mukhopadhyay, Prabhu Selvaraj, Aravind Balakrishnan and Ratna Kishore Velamati ()
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Vinay Sankar: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342037, India
Sreejith Sudarsanan: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamil-Nadu 641112, India
Sudipto Mukhopadhyay: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342037, India
Prabhu Selvaraj: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamil-Nadu 641112, India
Aravind Balakrishnan: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Ratna Kishore Velamati: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamil-Nadu 641112, India

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-41

Abstract: As the demand for powerful, light energy sources continues to grow, traditional electrochemical batteries are no longer sufficient and combustion-based power generation devices have become an attractive alternative due to their high energy density, compact size, fast recharging time and long service life. While most research on miniature-scale combustors has focused on gaseous fuels, the use of commonly available liquid fuels has the potential to be highly portable and economical. However, the complexity of droplet atomization, evaporation, mixing and burning in a limited volume and short residence time has presented significant challenges for researchers. This review focuses on various methodologies proposed by researchers (like flow burring injector, fuel film injection, injecting into porous media, electrospray and some self-aspirating designs) to overcome these challenges, the combustion behaviour and different instabilities associated with liquid fuels at small scales. The current review intends to present a clear direction to channel the efforts made by researchers to overcome the difficulties associated with liquid fuel combustion at small scales for power generation applications. Additionally, this review aims to give an overview of power systems at the micro and meso scales that operate using liquid fuels. The methodologies introduced like electrospray requires external power, which again makes the system complex. Towards the development of standalone type power generators, the self-aspirating design which makes use of hydrostatic pressure, fuel film injection or taking advantage of exhaust gas enthalpy to preheat and evaporate the liquid fuel are the promising methodologies.

Keywords: micro/meso scale combustion; power generators; premixed; non-premixed and partially premixed (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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