Combustion and flame front morphology characterization of H2–CO syngas blends in constant volume combustion bombs

Abstract

The need to develop new, alternative, and bio-origin fuels for use in internal combustion engines has motivated the realization of this research, which aims to characterize the combustion process synthesis gas, represented by H2–CO blends, which are its main constituents. Syngas can be considered a biofuel because it is a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and other hydrocarbons, and it is formed by partial combustion of biomass. Experimental tests have been developed in two constant volume combustion bombs with spherical and cylindrical geometries to analyze the combustion process and the influence of the blend composition on the burning velocity. In the first one, the pressure registered during the combustion has been used to obtain the mass burning rate, temperatures, and burning velocities. The cylindrical bomb has two optical accesses through which the combustion process can be visualized and recorded with the Schlieren technique, and it has been used to characterize the morphology of the flame, the evolution of the flame front, or the laminar burning velocities, among other parameters of interest in the combustion process. For initial conditions of 0.1 MPa and 300 K, blends with different compositions and equivalence ratios have been studied. The introduction of hydrogen enhances combustion velocity and pressure, introducing also instabilities visible on flame front images, similar effects to those produced by increasing the equivalence ratio. Regarding the morphology of the flames, note that the tend to wrinkle and the cellularity increases as the hydrogen content of the mixture increases and the equivalence ratio decreases. The dependence of the numerical values of burning velocity has been expressed as a correlation on pressure and temperature. Finally, comparing the results of the burning velocities obtained in the spherical bomb and in the cylindrical bomb with those of different authors of the bibliography has checked the consistency and validity of them. Results of syngas blends are essential for the validation, optimization, and development of kinetic models for combustion development.