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Chemical, thermal and dilution effects of carbon dioxide in oxy-fuel combustion of wood in a fixed bed

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Abstract

Experimental and numerical modeling was performed on eucalyptus wood combustion under oxy-fuel conditions using a fixed bed reactor in order to isolate the role of various carbon dioxide effects on the burning rate. Wood combustion was investigated under four different mixtures of O2 and Ar/CO2/N2: 21 % O2/79 % N2; 21 % O2/22.5 % CO2/56.5 % Ar; 40 % O2/60 % CO2; and 40 % O2/47 % CO2/13 % Ar. The first three mixtures were designed to have the same peak temperatures in order to isolate chemical and dilution effects of CO2. This was achieved by substituting some percentage of CO2 with Ar in O2/CO2 mixture while maintaining a constant concentration of O2. The fourth mixture was meant to isolate the thermal effect of CO2. The results were obtained from both the experimental rig and numerical simulation for a fixed bed configuration. Wood combustion in the fixed bed was modeled using Lagrange-Euler method, where gas-phase was calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), that is Euler phase, while solid-phase was tracked in Lagrange phase using discrete element method (DEM). The results show that ignition time in CO2 environment decreases gradually as O2 concentration is increased. On the other hand, burning rate and flame front speed increase as O2 concentration is increased. It was established that dilution effect is the most influential parameter on the burning rate of wood combustion in an oxy-fuel system.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by both Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya and Technische Hochschule Wildau, Germany. The first Author would like to thank German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the financial support for his stay in Technische Hochschule Wildau, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, P.O. Box 657-10100, Nyeri, Kenya

    Josephat Kipyegon Tanui & Paul Ndirangu Kioni

  2. Fachbereich Ingenieur- und Naturwissenschaften, Technische Hochschule Wildau, Hochschulring 1, 15745, Wildau, Germany

    Thomas Mirre & Mario Nowitzki

Authors
  1. Josephat Kipyegon Tanui
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  2. Paul Ndirangu Kioni
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  3. Thomas Mirre
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  4. Mario Nowitzki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josephat Kipyegon Tanui.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Jeong Park

J. K. Tanui

received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009 and 2013, respectively. He is currently doing his Ph.D. at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) with special arrangements to carry out some research at Technische Hochschule Wildau, Germany. His research interests include combustion and gasification of solid fuels, biofuels combustion and kinetics, emissions and pollutant formation in fuels.

P. N. Kioni

received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nairobi, Kenya, in 1988, and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, United Kingdom, in 1994. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at DeKUT. His research interests include studies of reacting flows.

T. Mirre

received his Dipl.-Ing. in power plant technology and transformation of energy, special nuclear technology from Technical University Zittau in 1982. In 1992 he became a Professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Applied Science (UAS) Wildau and from 1998 to 2010 he was the Dean of the faculty. His subject area is thermodynamics, flows and turbo-engines.

M. Nowitzki

received his Dipl.-Ing. in Process Engineering from UAS Wildau in 2005. He is currently working at UAS Wildau and doing his Dr.-Ing. at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. His research interests include multiphase flow simulation, Tesla microturbines, substance transition in rectification columns and heat transfer.

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Tanui, J.K., Kioni, P.N., Mirre, T. et al. Chemical, thermal and dilution effects of carbon dioxide in oxy-fuel combustion of wood in a fixed bed. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 6063–6073 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1150-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1150-z

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