Reduction in Pollutants Emissions From Domestic Boilers—Computational Fluid Dynamics Study

Abstract

This study is concerned with building a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the combustion process occurring in the combustion chamber of some domestic boilers. The burner used in this boiler is a conventional cylindrical premix burner with small inlet holes on its surface. A two-dimensional CFD model is built to simulate the combustion chamber domain, and the partially premixed combustion model with a postprocessor for NOx calculations is used to simulate the combustion process inside the combustion chamber. A complete description of the formation characteristics of NOx produced from the boiler is discussed in detail. A comparison between the CFD numerical results and the experimental measurements at different boiler loads is performed in order to validate the numerical model and investigate the accuracy of the CFD model. The validated CFD model is used to investigate the effect of different boundaries temperatures and the mixture inlet velocity on the flue gas average temperature, residence time, and hence the CO and NOx concentrations produced from the combustion chamber. The concept of changing the mixture inlet velocity is found to be an effective method to improve the design of the burner in order to reduce the pollutant emissions produced from the boiler with no effect on the boiler efficiency.