EXPERIMENTALLY USE OF GLYCEROL AS A BIOFUEL IN OXY-COMBUSTION THERMAL PROCESS

Abstract

The renewable energy that also includes bioenergy represents the viable alternative of improving the environment quality and at the same time, protecting the natural fossil fuel reserves globally diminished in the last period. Having biological origins, the burning of biofuels for energy purposes is a non-conventional process accepted on the global scale as a solution to replace polluting fossil fuels. The work aims to test the conditions of using glycerol together with ethanol as biofuels in an original oxy-fuel combustion process. All oxy-liquid biofuel burners designed and experimentally tested in the world are intended for internal combustion engines, while the burner presented in this paper is designed for heating boilers and furnaces, the difference in the constructive and functional principle determining the paper originality. The experiment carried out on the burners testing stand in the Metallurgical Research Institute of Bucharest allowed establishing the optimal characteristics of the process for the nominal heat power of 60 kW under the conditions of obtaining a stable flame, with high temperature (1781-1846 ºC) and moderate emissions of carbon dioxide (below 0.13 vol. %) and nitrogen oxides (152-210 mg/m³N).