Features of the Mechanism of Gas-phase Ignition of Wood Biomass Particles

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Abstract

Use of woody biomass instead of coal as fuel for thermal power plants (TPP) is considered a promising direction for reducing emissions of anthropogenic substances during the operation of coal-fired thermal power plants. But the process of replacing coal with wood in the thermal power industry is happening very slowly due to objective reasons. The main one is the deposition of particles that have not fully passed the pyrolysis stage (in this case, a layer of substance in a resinous state is retained in the wood particle) on heating surfaces (for example, superheaters) and a decrease in the efficiency of using the heat of combustion of fuel as a result of contamination of the heating surfaces. Therefore, when developing technologies for burning dispersed wood in the furnaces of boiler units, reliable experimental data are required on the characteristic times of ignition and combustion of woody biomass particles, taking into account the time of transition from local (focal) gas-phase ignition to the combustion of volatiles in the entire vicinity of the particle (tsf). The article presents the results of experimental studies of flame propagation processes in the small vicinity of a particle during the ignition period. The experiments made it possible to establish that the flame propagation velocity in the small vicinity of the particle significantly depends on the ambient temperature. It is shown that under conditions of low-temperature heating (air temperature Tg = 873 K), the propagation velocity of the combustion (flame) is minimal. An increase in Tg values (from 873 K to 1273 K) leads to a significant (4–5 times) increase in the time of complete flame coverage of the particle. According to the results of the experiments, two heating modes were identified: high-temperature and low-temperature with a conditional interface Tg = 873 K. At Tg = 873 K, the characteristic particle size of wood biomass has no significant effect on the characteristics and conditions of flame propagation in a small vicinity of the particle. An increase in the ambient temperature (up to 1273 K) leads to an increase in the influence of particle size on the characteristics and conditions of flame propagation. A hypothesis describing the process of flame propagation has been developed.

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