Influence of biofuel moisture content on combustion and emission characteristics of stove
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Technological Equipment of Buildings, Kamýcká 129, CZ 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic
*Correspondence: david.cerny@dotacenazeleno.cz
Abstract:
The research aim was to study the effect of moisture in solid fuel on combustion in a stove and its emissions. Analysed samples were from spruce woodchips. Four samples were prepared with different moisture contents and furthermore spruce wood was used as a reference sample. Combustion device used was a stove with a fixed fire grate. Studied parameters were ambient temperature, temperature of flue gases, coefficient of excess air, and contents of oxygen and carbon monoxide in flue gases. Laboratory measurement was performed on an analyser of flue gases whose function is based on electro-chemical converters. Measured values were first converted to a referential oxygen content in flue gases. Evaluation of these values was then made by regression analyses. The course of combustion process and its quality can be seen well in functional dependence of carbon monoxide on excess air coefficient. The area of combustion was the smallest with the least moist sample (3.2%) and increases with increasing moisture. A sample with high moisture (31.1%) was already causing the fire to gradually extinguish. Because flue gas temperature is in the same range for all samples, the overall efficiency of the stove decreases sharply with fuel moisture due to specific heat of flue gases. It has been thus confirmed that fuel moisture content has a substantial influence on combustion, especially in the chosen combustion device, which has been verified by comparison with the reference fuel.
Key words:
biomass, combustion, elemental and stoichiometric analyses, emissions., spruce chips