A mixed computational and experimental approach to Improved biogas burner flame port design

Anaerobic digestion is a well-known and potentially beneficial process for rural communities in emeiging markets, providing the opportunity to generate usable gaseous fuel from waste resources. With recent developments in low-cost digestion technology, communities across the world are gaining affordable access to the benefits of anaerobic digestion derived biogas. For example, biogas provides a more efficient and cleaner burning alternative to biomass (wood, charcoal, dung), effectively reducing harmful emissions and fuel consumption. This study sought to develop and test a design approach for optimizing flame port geometry for household biogas-fired burners. The approach consists of a multi-component simulation that incorporates threedimensional CAD designs with simulated chemical kinetics and computational fluid dynamics The sim.ulated flame port designs included an array of circular and rec tangulatgeometries using a widely available biogas burnei The thr.ee highrst pei forminrdesigns identified weie manufrctured and tested expei imentari to validate model outputs and to compare against a baseline port geometry In the expei iment,rich of the thiee desirns suggested impi oved trrmed efficiency relative to the baseline A configuration of four millimetei cn culrr irrts lesultedrm a 7 17in improvement, laising rn average thei mal efrciency of 53 0% to 56 8% The results indicated thathydiauli c diametei, velocrty and mixtuie density are i elevanrfactoi s in prt geometry design to impiove therthei mal efrmiency of a biogas burnei Conveir.sely, re emissions predictions made by the model (C) 2018 International Energy Initiative Published by Elsevier Inc All nghr reserv.e(C)