Molero de Blas, Luis Javier; (1998) Pollutant formation and interaction in the combustion of heavy liquid fuels. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Decreasing quality and stricter environmental regulations impose potential limitations to the use of heavy fuel oils in combustion. Because of their low cost they are economical alternatives for power generation. However, they contain large amounts of nitrogen and sulphur, which form NOx and Sox during combustion and cause undesirable pollution. Additionally they often produce carbonaceous particulates. A knowledge of the formation and interaction of nitrogen and sulphur compounds in combustion is necessary to establish pollution abatement strategies. In this thesis a study of those processes was performed using a number of heavy petroleum-based fuels. An extensive literature review on relevant aspects of heavy fuel combustion was carried out, with particular emphasis on the formation of NOx, SOx, particulates and ash. In the first stage of the experimental work, the ignition characteristics of the fuels were determined by means of the single suspended droplet technique. They were found to comply with most of the correlations for heavy fuel combustion established by Taylor and Burgess, relating the combustion characteristics of a fuel droplet to its dimensions. The formation of NOx and SO2 was studied in a drop-tube furnace as a function of the stoichiometry, flame temperature and residence time. Additional information about other species formed was also obtained, as well as about the formation of thermal-NOx. In a further stage, a numerical model was used to simulate mathematically the experimental results and study the mechanisms of interaction between N and S species. These calculations were aided by measurements of the flame temperature in the drop-tube furnace. In the last stage of the experimental work, the interaction of sulphur species with NOx (ie NO and NO2) was studied experimentally by adding SO2-gas to the combustion system in the drop-tube furnace. Sulphur was found to influence the formation and emission of NO and NO2 in different ways according to the equivalence ratio. Nitrogen-sulphur interactions were also studied as a function of the residence time.

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