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Study of Enhancing The Swirl Burner Performance - Edit Fajri
Study of Enhancing The Swirl Burner Performance - Edit Fajri
Abstract
There are many processes for converting biomass into a more useful form of energy. One
of the most popular technological processes is through direct combustion of biomass or in a
controlled atmosphere or gasification. The current gasifier that has a maximum heat capacity of
combustion system of 15.02 kW, used to burn biomass (oil palm shell) produces gases of low
calorific gas through a low calorific swirl gas burner. Some problem appears using low
calorific, it causes no circulation and weak swirling flame, and this will be an increase of
residence time at high temperature. The gas burner, which is incorporated with the two-stage
biomass combustion system, consists of burner tube and swirl-vane. These swirl gas burners that
consist of different turning vane positions i.e. 20o, 30o and 40o, are equal to the swirl number of
0.22, 0.356 and 0.508, respectively. The experimental shows that maximum heat release of the
gas burner is 5.8 kW at equivalence ratio of 1.21 with the gas flow rate of 1.04 g/hr. The flame
temperature of the gas burner reached a range of 590 to 677 oC at the equivalence ratio, of
1.16 to 1.66. In case of swirl flames while increased the swirl number, the flame length
decreased significantly with the increasing premixing and flame changed from orange-yellow
color to a blue color as the characteristics of a higher level of premixing.
Keywords: Gas burner, Swirl Burner Performance, biomass gasification, swirl flame
1.
Introduction
On acquiring the best performance of gas burner, it is necessary to find a design of gas
burner so that the combustion efficiency can be increased. And also, currently, the reduction of
pollutant emissions from practical combustion devices is a major issue in combustion research.
One of the main pollutants is NO x and CO. Therefore, some different methods have been
proposed to reduce these emissions. These include, for example, partially premixed turbulent
Corresponding author: adisur@eng.ui.ac.id
flames [1], rotating matrix swirl burner [2], heat recirculation ceramic burner [3], air swirl burner
[4] , tangential inlet swirl burner [5], air staging [6], reburning and low NO x burners. In general,
these methods try to reduce the residence time in high temperature regions or to avoid high
oxygen concentration in such regions. Some previous study [6,7,8,9] mentioned, gas turbine
combustors and industrial systems utilized a high-swirl type of burner in which the swirling
motion generated by the injector (or burner) is sufficiently high to produce a fully developed
internal recirculation zone at the entrance of the combustor. For conventional non-premixed
combustion, the role of the large recirculation zone, also known as the toroidal vortex core, is to
promote turbulent mixing of fuel and air. In premixed systems, the recirculation zone provides a
stable heat source for continuous ignition of the fresh reactants, as refers to the review of Syred
and Beer [7] for extensive background on the basic processes and practical implementation of
high-swirl combustors7.
But according of some study [10.11], low-swirl combustion is a relatively recent
development, is an excellent tool for laboratory research on flame/turbulent interactions. Its
operating principle exploits the propagating wave nature of premixed flames and is not valid
for non-premixed combustion. Premixed flames consume the reactants in the form of selfsustained reacting waves that propagate at flame speeds controlled by mixture compositions,
thermodynamic conditions, and turbulence intensities. In contrast, non-premixed diffusion
flames do not propagate (i.e., move through the reactants) because burning occurs only at the
mixing zones of the fuel and oxidizer streams. To capture a fast moving turbulent premixed
flame as a standing wave that remains stationary, low-swirl combustion exploits a fluid
mechanical phenomenon called a divergent flow. As the name implies, divergent flow is an
expanding flow stream. It is formed when the swirl intensities are deliberately low such that
vortex breakdown, a precursor to the formation of flow reversal and recirculation, does not
occur. Therefore, the Low Swirl Combustion (LSC principle is fundamentally different from the
high-swirl concept of typical Dry Low NOx (DLN) gas turbines, where strong toroidal vortexes
are the essential flow elements to maintain and continuously reignite the flames. The engineering
guideline for the LSB is specified in terms of a range of swirl number (0.4 < S < 0.55).
One method of increasing the performance of the burner is using the swirler that can be
inserted inside the burner model, as shown in Figure 1. Swirler means here are guided vane
system in which so positioned that they can deflect the flow direction. Thus in current
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construction the swirler positioned in the axial pipe flow which have a fixed set of vanes at a
certain angle to the mainstream direction, which deflects the stream into rotation. This flow
rotation is generating a recirculation bubble which plays an important role in flame stabilization.
There are two main requirements for flame stabilization, first, mixture ratios within flammability
limits and second, velocities low enough to match burning velocities.
Figure 1. The gas burner tube inserted with a 20o vane pack swirler
Swirl significantly influences heat and mass transfer in many natural and technological
flows (Shtern et al., 1998). Swirl is used in vortex burners and chemical reactors to stabilize the
flame front and to increase the surface area across which heat and mass transfer exchange occurs.
In vortex devices, centrifugal acceleration can be high as 10 4 times the gravity and provides
useful stratification of temperature and density. Hot low-density fluid collects near the axis of
rotation, i.e. away from side-walls, while the near-wall region consists of cold high density fluid.
In waste and fuel burners and within furnaces, swirl is often used to modify flow
characteristics. Because of the intense recirculation patterns in swirling flows (burning gases
travel back towards the burner bringing heat energy and reactive species to promote ignition in
entering fuel-air mixture) rotation is found to shorten the flame (Niessen, 1995).
2.
Experimental Procedure
The current swirl burner is the upper part of the complete combustion system that was
fabricated in the combustion laboratory. The fuel-gas in the gas burner is produced by the
gasifier, the lower part of the combustion system.
Mixing gas will be ignited in the secondary chamber, which has dimension of 0.3 m
diameter and 0.35 m length. It was constructed from 1 mm mild steel-plate. Because of the
present gasifier is a pilot scale facility, the chamber was not necessary lined with the refractory
since this facility was not utilized for a long operation. However, the best furnace chamber
should be lined with refractory to prevent excessive heat loss.
The producing gas from the primary chamber was kept constant around 1.04 g/hr. For the
secondary air, its flow rate was varied from 438, 498, 535 and 622 lpm. The operating conditions
for the turbulent premixed flames considered in the present study are summarized in Table 1. The
nominal heat release rate is obtained by multiplying the fuel mass flow rate by its nominal
heating value of 5100 kJ/m3 (White and Plaskett, 1981).
Table 1. Operating Conditions for Turbulent Premixed Flames
Swirl-vane angle
Flow Parameter
20o
Equivalence Ratio, -
40o
1.16 1.66
5.8
1.04
Flame Temperature, oC
560
569
632
244
253
284
2.1
30o
438 - 622
Atmospheric pressure
Instrumentation Set-Up
Figure 2.a and 2.b show the configuration of the combustion system and enlargement of
secondary chamber, respectively. The flowmeter used was ventury type and before utilized for
the air flowrate measurement (primary and secondary air supply), it was calibrated with the
Corresponding author: adisur@eng.ui.ac.id
standard flowmeter. Adjusting the air supply consumption, two air valves were mounted on each
air-supply pipes. Measuring the air flowrate can be done directly through reading the
differentiation of water level in the U-tube.
Figure 2. (a)
2.2
Type of Swirl-Burner
The current swirl-burner has three different types of the swirl-vane angle. The current
swirl burner constructions have an almost similar dimension to the swirl burner model that used
in predicted study. Material used for the current swirl burner construction is mild steel. This kind
of material can resist the temperature below 1000 K in continuously operation. Table 2 presents
the important parameter of the current designed swirl-vane burner.
Corresponding author: adisur@eng.ui.ac.id
Vane angle
( )
20
30
40
Number of
vane
(l,w,th,d, dh ) in mm
Swirler Number
(S)
le
th
dh
53
35
83
19
0.22
50.6
33
83
19
0.356
38
31
83
19
0.508
Where le is equal length of vane, w is width of vane, th is thickness of vane, d is cirle diameter of
vane and dh is hub diameter of vane.
Figure 3 shows the fabricated different types of vanes used for the experimental purposes.
probes in the secondary chamber. All these thermocouple-probes connected with a system datalogger from Data Taker 605 and all the data by the computer displayed online.
A Rosemount Series 500 gas-analyzer allows following discontinuously the concentration
of O2, CO, NOx, CO2, Excess-air, and Combustion Efficiency. When measured all the data the
gas-probe tip was inserted into the secondary chamber.
2.3
Methods of starting-up
The starting up process of the combustion system comprise of the following four steps,
i.e. preparation, ignition the producer gas, measurement work and completing the experiment at
work. Detail of each step will be explained as follows:
2.3.1
drying the solid waste until the maximum moisture percentage reached 9% of weight, clearing
the primary combustion chamber from the ash, checking the condition of the instrumentation
such as thermocouples, data logger and the PC, observe the primary chamber cover to prevent
the possibility of gas leakage and check the instrumentation of the portable gas analyzer.
It should be noted that the purpose of burning the waste in this gasification system is to
produce combustible gas. At first, creates the combustion zone by feeding 2 kg the palm shell
into the primary chamber through the screw-feeder. Then, a small amount of kerosene is mixed
with the palm shell inside this chamber. After igniting this mixture, a thin white smoke appears.
Another 5 kg of palm shell was fed to raise the quantity of combustible smoke from the primary
chamber. Leave this condition of around one hour until the T1 (combustion zone) reached 800850 oC and T2 (reduction zone) of 500-600 oC.
2.3.2
with a gas-torch. Based on the experiences, the best condition to produce the flame, when the
combustion zone reaches the temperature, T1 between 950-1200oC.
The ignition was conducted manually using the gas-torch. It was suggested that the
igniter be placed close enough to the burner-tube, as seen in Figure 4. Before ignite the thick
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smoke, the air mass flowrate from both primary and secondary air, is adjusted in proportional
ratio so that, the mixed gas can be ignited easily and a sustainable flame occurs outside the
cyclone chamber. The sustainable flame can be maintained successfully at the primary air
flowrate of 125 lpm and the minimum secondary air flowrate of 438 lpm and maximum of 622
lpm.
2.3.3
Measurement work
The scope of measurement activity during combustion process involved recording the
temperature at combustion zone (TC1), reduction zone (TC2), pyrolysis zone, drying zone (TC3,
TC4 and TC5), cyclonic chamber (TC6), exiting flame (TC7 and TC8), emission level at EP1
and EP2, primary and secondary air flowrate (AF1 and AF2), solid fuel flowrate (Q f).
To
2.3.4
Switching off the air blower and the solid fuel feeder causes the flame to extinguish
immediately. Then, the temperature in the primary chamber decreases slowly to around 100 oC
(373 K), so that the gasification process could not produce enough combustible gas.
3.
3.1
Flammability limits
For combustion to be effective, such as to maintain a low NO x formation and to keep of a
low CO emission, the should be varied in a properly range. This can be done through vary the
secondary-air flowrate. The increasing this flowrate from 438 to 622 lpm has reduced the from
1.66 to 1.16. For 20o and 30o swirl-vane angle burner, the increasing of air flowrate until 622 lpm
or = 1.16, has increased the flame strength. Thus, since the velocity of premixed flow is
slightly below than the flame velocity, the increment of secondary-air flowrate is adjusted
proportional, so that it can encourage the flame strength. For 40 o swirl angle, even though the
increase of air flowrate gives the same trend of flame strength, at <1.33 occurs a flashback
flame into the burner, then it caused the flame to extinguish immediately. It has a possibility, that
the reducing of causes the rising of total flow velocity that is higher than 20 o and 30o swirl-vane
burner. As consequence, it effects to the increasing of burning velocity. The flame velocity
magnitude for 40o swirl-vane is much higher than the others. Furthermore, this burning velocity
is far beyond the premixed flow velocity and it causes a flashback flame.
0.55
0.5
Richer mixture
0.45
0.4
Leaner
mixture
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
1.2
1.25
1.3
1.35
1.4
1.45
1.5
1.55
1.6
1.65
1.7
Flame Appearance
Swirl burner with an appropriate strength is found to increase the air-fuel mixing,
increase the combustion efficiency, reduce the flame length, decrease the residence time at high
temperature and decrease NOx emissions. In order to have this effect, the swirl must be strong
enough so that the vorticity can diffuse to the centerline and form a circulation zone.
The current experiments is performed the photographs of combustion flame of different
swirl-vane angle burner, i.e 20o, 30o and 40o as shown in Figure 6. (a) The photographs in Figure
6. (b) show a clear different of flame shape and color. The 20 o swirl-vane burner (left) dominate
the yellow and red color flame and a small quantity of blue color flame (unfortunately not clear
in the photo) that anchored at the end of burner rim. The blue flame near the burner rim is due to
swirling-induced recirculation and enhancement of local premixing. The flame appearance is
rather in a poor condition, due to a lower burning velocity. The yellow and red color is due to the
appearance of soot particle. The 30o swirl-vane burner (middle) shows a better flame appearance.
As expected, it shows a stronger radial and vortex velocity around the burner center. The lower
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turbulence intensity gives a higher burning velocity than the previous swirl-burner. It can be
noticed also, since it occurs a higher radial velocity, the vane hub at the burner center, can be
seen easily. Around this hub the yellow flame color appears. It indicates this zone occurs a better
mixing. The reaction was ideally stabilized in that yellow patches periodically appeared. The
dominated blue color flame appears at 40 o swirl-vane burner (right). It shows that swirl effect is
more active and creates a higher momentum flux ratio (Gupta, 1995 and Cheng et al., 2001).
This encourages more bubble-like recirculation zone near the the burner rim. The red color flame
appears in a thin flame form as the effect lower velocity and thin soot formation. The strong
radial and vortex velocity occurs in this burner type since the burning velocity has higher
velocity. It can be noticed, that the flame lengths tend to decrease for higher degree of swirl-vane
angle. It means the combustion reaction is more stable and efficient. However, effect of higher
aerodynamic effect, increasing the swirling air-fuel mixture and decreasing momentum flux
ratio6.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 6. Photographs that show different flame of 20o (a), 30o (b) and
40o (c) swirl-vane burner at = 1.33.
3.3
ratio (). The graph shows that the burner work on rich mixture, above the stoichiometric
equivalent ratio ( >1). The highest temperature that is reached by 40 o swirl-vane burner is 665
C at of 1.33. Other burner configurations, such as 30o and 20o swirl-vane burner give a lower
flame temperature i.e. 590 and 580 oC at of 1.17 respectively. On these burners show a
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decreasing of diffusion flame when the rises to the condition of fuel rich mixing. This causes
by the reducing of reaction kinetic rate or decrease in conversion efficiency.
The graphs show also the effect of different swirl-vane angle on the variation of flame
temperature. It indicates an aerodynamic of swirl vane contributes or causes the increase mixing
quality of the premixed fuel. Higher swirl-vane angle determines significantly the uniformity of
the premixed fuel, furthermore, this encourages the increasing of the reaction kinetic rates. The
variation of flame temperature is dependence on this kinetics rate.
680
660
640
20 deg
40 deg
30 deg
620
600
580
560
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
Figure 7. Effect of increasing the EQR- equivalent ratio () on different swirlvane to the flame temperature
Figure 8 shows the increasing of oxygen consumption and production of carbon dioxide
for the increasing of swirl-vane angle. To increase a higher flame temperature, it needs a higher
air or oxygen consumption. As already explained on the previous paragraph, that the 40o swirlvane gives a better diffusion rate, so that the oxygen reacts with the premixed fuel faster than
other swirl-vane. As the consequence, the excess air at 40 o swirl-vane is lower than other swirlvane as shown in Figure 10. It seems that the consumption of oxygen is high enough and
Corresponding author: adisur@eng.ui.ac.id
possibly the mixing process is smoother, so that the flame temperature at 40 o swirl-vane
increases much higher than other swirl-vane. At = 1.66 for 20o swirl angle, the O2 consumption
is 11.6 % with the flame temperature of 565oC and with the same for 40o swirl angle, the O2
consumption is 9.1 % at 632oC.
16
14
12
10
CO2
O2
O2 (30 deg)
O2 (40 deg)
4
550
575
600
625
650
675
Other important combustion parameters are the effect increasing of to the variation of
CO and NOx. Figure 9 shows the increment of CO and decreasing of NO x emission for all swirlvane burners on increasing from 1.16 to 1.66. The highest CO emission of 391 ppm occurs at
=1.66 for 30o swirl angle, however, in average is reached 311.25 ppm for 20 o swirl angle. The
lowest is achieved 65 ppm at =1.33 for 40o swirl angle. The CO formation is dependence on the
mixed-quality between the premixed fuel and the oxygen. As already discussed, 40 o swirl angle
gives a smoother diffusion between the fuel and oxygen, and encourages a higher PVC formation
and RFZ structure that can increase the burning time or combustion residence time. A longer
residence time produces more oxidation process to form CO 2. Therefore, it allows reducing the
uncompleted reaction.
Corresponding author: adisur@eng.ui.ac.id
600
500
CO
Polynomial (CO )
NOx
Polynomial (NOx )
CO (30 deg)
CO (40 deg)
400
300
200
100
0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
Figure 9. Effect of the increasing of EQR- equivalent ratio () on different swirlvane to the variation of CO and NOx emission level
Current study work in the range of equivalent ratio 1.16<<1.66 or higher than the
stoichiometric value ( > 1). The graphs show that higher causes to a condition of a higher fuel
composition rather than oxygen composition. As consequence, it causes a slower reaction rate
and the flame temperature is not high, lower than 1000oC. Thus, this condition has an advantage
to reduce the NOx formation rate. Based on this combustion condition, the NOx forming of the
current study can be categorized in Prompt NO or Fenimore reaction mechanism. In this
mechanism, NO is rapidly produced in the flame zone of laminar premixed flames long before
the NO forming by the thermal mechanism. Turn (1996) and Strahle (1993) have described the
Fenimore mechanism, that the hydrocarbon radicals are believed to react with molecular nitrogen
to form amines or cyano compounds, which are then converted to intermediate compounds that
ultimately form NO. In the equation form can be written as following:
CH + N2
HCN + N
(a)
CH2 + N2
HCN + NH
(b)
C + N2
CN + N
(c)
N + O2
NO + O
(d)
HCN + OH
CN + H2O
(e)
CN + O2
NO + CO
(f)
At 30o and 40o swirl angle, the increasing from 1.16 to 1.66 does not give any
significant changes of NOx reduction of 9 and 1.14 % respectively, but for 20o swirl angle shows
a significant reduction at lower of 34.92 %. The maximum NOx formation is reached of 315
ppm at = 1.16 for 20o swirl angle and the minimum is achieved of 69 ppm at the same for 40o
swirl angle. It shows NOx reduction at smaller swirl angle gives more significant value. A strong
possibility is the combustion turbulent plays an important role. At higher swirl-vane angle, since
the turbulent intensity is lower, the mixing process between air and fuel occurs is good enough to
produce a high kinetic rate. For a lower swirl-vane angle, oxygen distribution is needed to
control the NOx formation if it compares with the temperature distribution as seen on Figure 7
the NOx formation shows a proportional curve distribution with the temperature. At higher
temperature, the NOx formation is more significant. Thus, thermal NO mechanism is more
significant at higher temperature.
For all swirl-vane angle, the increasing of gives the decreasing of combustion
efficiency and increasing of Excess Air (EA) as shown in Figure 10. Combustion Efficiency is
attributed to the degree of complete combustion of the hydrocarbon with the air mixing.
Unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) is the presence of incomplete combustion, which is dominating
the emission pollutant at the burner exit (Correy, 1969 and Niessen, 1995).
100
90
80
70
EA
CE
EA (30 deg)
CE (30 deg)
EA (40 deg)
CE (40 deg)
60
50
40
1.1
Figure 10.
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
Effect of the increasing the EQR- equivalent ratio () at different swirlvane to the variation of Combustion Efficiency (CE) and Excess air
(EA) level
intensity near the swirl-vane reduces. This causes a smoother diffusion between fuel and oxygen.
Furthermore, it produces a better combustion process, reduces CO and UHC emission level.
4.
Conclusions
Measurements and predictions of the 20o, 30o and 40o swirl-vane burner flow field and
the chemistry in an air staged combustion system has been performed. The result of
measurement was carried out at the exit of ax symmetric combustor over the significant range of
operating conditions, i.e. the present (EQR) range. The results shows that the maximum CE
reaches 95.1 % at = 1.33 for 40o swirl-vane burner. For 30o and 20o swirl-vane burner reach the
average CE of 75.82 and 73.6 % at EA of 48.75 and 89.25 % respectively. The effect of
aerodynamic of swirl-vane, such as increasing of swirl-vane angle from 20 to 40 o, the turbulence
intensity near the swirl-vane reduces. This causes a smoother diffusion between fuel and oxygen.
ACKNOLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful tso the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment under
the IRPA Research Program for research grant awarded and Combustion Laboratory Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia for the support during carry out the research work.
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