Combustion in porous media and its applications - A comprehensive survey

The rapid advances in technology and improved living standard of the society necessitate abundant use of fossil fuels which poses two major challenges to any nation. One is fast depletion of fossil fuel resources; the other is environmental pollution. The porous medium combustion (PMC) has proved to be one of the technically and economically feasible options to tackle the aforesaid problems to a remarkable extent. PMC has interesting advantages compared with free flame combustion due to the higher burning rates, the increased power dynamic range, the extension of the lean flammability limits, and the low emissions of pollutants. This article provides a comprehensive picture of the global scenario of research and developments in PMC and its applications that enable a researcher to decide the direction of further investigation. The works published so far in this area are reviewed, classified according to their objectives and presented in an organized manner with general conclusions. A separate section is devoted for the numerical modeling of PMC. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.