Aquecedor poroso com sistema de ignição lança-chama aplicado ao gás natural e ao biogás

Abstract

"Filtration Combustion" is a technology that has been used in the development of heaters and boilers with high efficiency and low pollutant emissions. However, the ignition process of combustion in such equipments, constituted of volumetric porous burners, have been an issue still unresolved. Conventional systems developed for these burners present some operational drawback that affects the combustion efficiency. So, this work aims mainly to present a robust and economical design of flame-thrower ignition system aimed at volumetric porous burners, in which Filtration Combustion is being applied as a basis technology for the developing a new model of water heater. A prototype of the heater equipped with the ignition system has been developed in laboratory scale, carrying out experimental and theoretical studies on the burning natural gas and biogas. The theoretical analysis involves the characterization of gas flow along the body of the ignition system through simulation with the software "ANSYS-CFX," as well as of the phenomena related to the combustion wave propagating itself through the heater’s burner, for which a numerical simulation in FORTRAN has been used. In this context, a software “PREMIX” was used in the chemical equilibrium calculation, applicable to premixed combustion in a porous medium, taking as reference the two main parameters of operation: the equivalence ratio and flow velocity of the air-fuel mixture. As a result, the ignition system proposed has been adequate to the porous burner, providing stability and ease of operation, and significantly reducing the time required for preheating the porous medium. The modeling of flow and combustion has served as a support for proper interpretation of the phenomena present in the processes. Filtration Combustion has allowed stable operation of the heater in a wide range of equivalence ratio (from 0.30 to 1).