Diluted Combustion of Low Calorific, Alternative Fuels on a 30 kW furnace

Diluted combustion is a high efficiency combustion technique, successfully applied on industrial furnaces to have very low NOx emissions and significant energy savings by high air preheating. A specific configuration of air and fuel injectors guarantees a strong recirculation of flue gases inside the chamber, with consequent high dilution of reactants into the flue gases and temperature increase above the auto-ignition threshold. Experimental tests have been performed on a 30kW, laboratory scale furnace using Biogas and Methane. Thermocouples, gas analyzers, and intensified UV camera were used to respectively measure temperatures, flue gases contents on dry basis, and OH chemiluminescent levels.