Experimental study on the premixed lean-burn in alumina particles based porous burner

Coal mine methane (CMM) emissions from underground coal mines is becoming a global problem since it produces greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. It is critical to reduce low-concentration CMM(LCM) and ventilation air methane (VAM) emissions, which has become the focus to be solved urgently. One of the methods is utilizing this VAM as a fuel by mixing of CMM with the help of the porous burning system. In order to optimize the performance of a porous burning system composed of alumina particles, a series of complex porous media burners composed of two layers of alumina particles were proposed, after which a laboratory experimental system based on these burners was built. The lean-burn limits, lean-burn stabilization temperature and lean-burn fluctuation patterns of the burners built in this study were tested and reported in this paper. Results show that cylindrical burner with equal segment length of 3 mm diameter alumina particles at the upstream and 6 mm diameter alumina particles at the downstream is suitable for lean-burn with low flow rate, and cone burner with equal segment length of 3 mm diameter alumina particles at the upstream and 6 mm diameter alumina particles at the downstream is more suitable for lean-burn with high flow rate and low methane concentration, and the lean-burn limits for cone burner with volume methane concentration of 1.5% is obtained, which is the lowest lean-burn limit have reported at present. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

With coal mine methane emissions becoming a global issue, optimizing the performance of porous burning systems has become crucial for reducing low-concentration gas emissions. Research shows that burners with alumina particles of different diameters are suitable for low-flow and high-flow lean-burn scenarios, respectively.