Descriptive statistical analysis of vegetables oils combustion in a commercial burner to establish optimal operating conditions

Abstract

This work studies the combustion of raw and refined sunflower (VSfO and RSfO) and raw rapeseed oils (VRpO) for heating purposes, in a low-pressure auxiliary air fluid pulverization burner. Firstly, the fatty acid profile as well as physical properties of these biofuels were determined by standard methods. Then, the authors performed the combustion tests selecting different fuel flow and airflow rates. Variations of CO, NOx and CxHy as well as combustion performance proved that raw and refined vegetable oils evidence similar behavior in the combustion processes. With the aim of determining the significance of the control parameters, fuel flow and airflow rates, on the experimental variables (CO, NOx, CxHy and h) an analysis of the variance ANOVA was performed. This study showed that both, airflow and fuel flow rates, have a statistical significant effect on the dependent variables (CO, NOx and combustion performance) except for CxHy. Optimal operating conditions were established from the interaction plots for the highest combustion performance and pollutant emissions below the limits legally established. The authors found, that emissions of CO and NOx displayed opposite trends, and extremely low NOx emissions and good combustion performance was achieved under conditions of fuel flow C6 and airflow Amin