Nanocluster initiation of combustion of off-grade hydrocarbon fuels

We have performed large-scale experiments on burning, in the regime of nanocluster pulsating combustion, such off-grade fuels as straw oil, hydrocarbon fuel, exhaust crankcase waste, crude oil, and others on the laboratory prototype of the self-contained burner of the Institute of Thermal Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The application of modern diagnostics has made it possible to obtain a large body of information on the features of the physicochemical processes of such combustion in the presence of superheated steam. The experimental and theoretical studies have shown that as a result of the heterogeneouscatalytic decomposition of water molecules on soot nanoclusters in the mixing zone, high concentrations of the OH radical are formed and that this decomposition can be effective on carbon particles of size 1–5 nm at temperatures characteristic of traditional flares. The generation of an active OH radical leads to a significant increase in the rates of chemical reactions and a stable high-temperature combustion of "heavy" fuels with the observance of ecological norms.