Droplet fuel

In order for fuel to combust and bum efficiently, it must be atomized into extremely small droplets. Fuel injectors aid tremendously in performing this role. However, if fuel viscosity is high, atomization into small droplets becomes difficult. Highly viscous fuel will not disperse freely after being sprayed from the fuel injector. The fuel instead sprays as a stream or large drops rather than as a fine mist. The result is a decrease in fuel efficiency and power due to incomplete burning of larger fuel droplets. 

The emulsion droplet consists of a fuel as the main component, and an aqueous solution in the form of micro-droplets, suspended within the emulsion droplet. Therefore, during the burning of the emulsion droplet, fuel (oil) and water vaporize, leading to an increase of the solute concentration within the suspended microsolution droplets. Evaporated fuel reacts with oxygen at some distance from the droplet surface to form a flame. It is assumed that combustion occurs stoichiomet-ricaUy in a thin flame according to the following reaction ... 

Secondary air is necessary for combnstion and tertiary air for ensuring completion of combustion of any remaining oil droplets/fuel particles and for protecting furnace refractory hning. 

Kim, B., "Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Aspects of Small-Scale Single Droplet Fuel-Coolant Interactions," Ph.D. Dissertation,... 

So//i/ fuels. Large coal-fired equipment normally uses pulverized fuel blown into the combustion chamber by a blast of air, similar to oil droplets. 

Liquid fuels. Industrial burners for liquid fuels usually atomize the fuels in hot air so that droplets will evaporate during combustion. For more volatile fuels such as kerosine, vaporizing burners of various types are employed, usually for domestic purposes. 

If one imagine.s that the fuel is used in the liquid state in the form of droplets —as in the case of fuel injection— the specific energy of the motor fuel (SE) is expressed in kilojoules per kilogram of air utilized, under predetermined conditions of equivalence ratio (stoichiometry for example). The SE is none other than the NHY /r quotient where r represents the previously defined stoichiometric ratio. 

The necessity of carrying out injection at high pressure and the atomization into fine droplets using an injector imposes very precise volatility characteristics for the diesel fuel. French and European specifications have established two criteria for minimum and maximum volatility therefore, the distilled fraction in volume % should be ... 

Moreover, the same surfactant structures that favor dispersion of fuel droplets in the combustion chamber most iikely play a role in reducing particulate emissions. (... 

Water-in-od emulsion explosives have been made as typified by a formulation containing 20% water, 12% oil, 2% microspheres, 1% emulsifier, and 65% ammonium nitrate. The micro droplets of an emulsion explosive offer the advantage of intimate contact between fuel and oxidizer, and tend to equal or outperform conventional water-based slurries. 

Ammonia from coal gasification has been used for fertilizer production at Sasol since the beginning of operations in 1955. In 1964 a dedicated coal-based ammonia synthesis plant was brought on stream. This plant has now been deactivated, and is being replaced with a new faciUty with three times the production capacity. Nitric acid is produced by oxidation and is converted with additional ammonia into ammonium nitrate fertilizers. The products are marketed either as a Hquid or in a soHd form known as Limestone Ammonium Nitrate. Also, two types of explosives are produced from ammonium nitrate. The first is a mixture of fuel oil and porous ammonium nitrate granules. The second type is produced by emulsifying small droplets of ammonium nitrate solution in oil. 

Natural gas is attractive as a fuel ia many appHcatioas because of its relatively clean burning characteristics and low air pollution (qv) potential compared to other fossil fuels. Combustion of natural gas iavolves mixing with air or oxygen and igniting the mixture. The overall combustion process does not iavolve particulate combustion or the vaporization of Hquid droplets. With proper burner design and operation, the combustion of natural gas is essentially complete. No unbumed hydrocarbon or carbon monoxide is present ia the products of combustioa. 

Thermal decomposition of spent acids, eg, sulfuric acid, is required as an intermediate step at temperatures sufficientiy high to completely consume the organic contaminants by combustion temperatures above 1000°C are required. Concentrated acid can be made from the sulfur oxides. Spent acid is sprayed into a vertical combustion chamber, where the energy required to heat and vaporize the feed and support these endothermic reactions is suppHed by complete combustion of fuel oil plus added sulfur, if further acid production is desired. High feed rates of up to 30 t/d of uniform spent acid droplets are attained with a single rotary atomizer and decomposition rates of ca 400 t/d are possible (98). 

Liquid fuel is injected through a pressure-atomizing or an air-blast nozzle. This spray is sheared by air streams into laminae and droplets that vaporize and bum. Because the atomization process is so important for subsequent mixing and burning, fuel-injector design is as critical as fuel properties. Figure 5 is a schematic of the processes occurring in a typical combustor. 

Droplet size, particularly at high velocities, is controlled primarily by the relative velocity between liquid and air and in part by fuel viscosity and density (7). Surface tension has a minor effect. Minimum droplet size is achieved when the nozzle is designed to provide maximum physical contact between air and fuel. Hence primary air is introduced within the nozzle to provide both swid and shearing forces. Vaporization time is characteristically related to the square of droplet diameter and is inversely proportional to pressure drop across the atomizer (7). 

The vapor cloud of evaporated droplets bums like a diffusion flame in the turbulent state rather than as individual droplets. In the core of the spray, where droplets are evaporating, a rich mixture exists and soot formation occurs. Surrounding this core is a rich mixture zone where CO production is high and a flame front exists. Air entrainment completes the combustion, oxidizing CO to CO2 and burning the soot. Soot bumup releases radiant energy and controls flame emissivity. The relatively slow rate of soot burning compared with the rate of oxidation of CO and unbumed hydrocarbons leads to smoke formation. This model of a diffusion-controlled primary flame zone makes it possible to relate fuel chemistry to the behavior of fuels in combustors (7). 

A minimum volatihty is frequently specified to assure adequate vaporization under low temperature conditions. It can be defined either by a vapor pressure measurement or by initial distillation temperature limits. Vaporization promotes engine start-up. Fuel vapor pressure assumes an important role particularly at low temperature. For example, if fuel has cooled to —40°C, as at arctic bases, the amount of vapor produced is well below the lean flammabihty limit. In this case a spark igniter must vaporize enough fuel droplets to initiate combustion. Start-up under the extreme temperature conditions of the arctic is a major constraint in converting the Air Force from volatile JP-4 to kerosene-type JP-8, the military counterpart of commercial Jet Al. 

The slope of the water solubiUty curves for fuels is about the same, and is constant over the 20—40°C temperature range. Each decrease of 1°C decreases water solubiUty about 3 ppm. The sensitivity of dissolved water to fuel temperature change is important. For example, the temperature of fuel generally drops as it is pumped iato an airport underground hydrant system because subsurface temperatures are about 10 °C lower than typical storage temperatures. This difference produces free water droplets, but these are removed by pumping fuel through a filter-coalescer and hydrophobic barrier before deUvery iato aircraft. 

A stable cloud of water ia fuel usually means that a surfactant is present to form a stable water-ia-oil emulsion. Smaller droplets resist natural coalescence processes. A surfactant that is potent as an emulsifying agent is apt to disarm the coalescing filters, aHowiag excess water to be deUvered with fuel. 

Most theories of droplet combustion assume a spherical, symmetrical droplet surrounded by a spherical flame, for which the radii of the droplet and the flame are denoted by and respectively. The flame is supported by the fuel diffusing from the droplet surface and the oxidant from the outside. The heat produced in the combustion zone ensures evaporation of the droplet and consequently the fuel supply. Other assumptions that further restrict the model include (/) the rate of chemical reaction is much higher than the rate of diffusion and hence the reaction is completed in a flame front of infinitesimal thickness (2) the droplet is made up of pure Hquid fuel (J) the composition of the ambient atmosphere far away from the droplet is constant and does not depend on the combustion process (4) combustion occurs under steady-state conditions (5) the surface temperature of the droplet is close or equal to the boiling point of the Hquid and (6) the effects of radiation, thermodiffusion, and radial pressure changes are negligible. 

The study of the combustion of sprays of Hquid fuels can be divided into two primary areas for research purposes single-droplet combustion mechanisms and the interaction between different droplets in the spray during combustion with regard to droplet size and distribution in space (91—94). The wide variety of atomization methods used and the interaction of various physical parameters have made it difficult to give general expressions for the prediction of droplet size and distribution in sprays. The main fuel parameters affecting the quaHty of a spray are surface tension, viscosity, and density, with fuel viscosity being by far the most influential parameter (95). 

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