A Comparative Analysis of Flame Temperature, Radiation Behaviors, and NOx Emission of an Oil Burner Fueled With Nano Biodiesel Blend Fuel Containing Suspended Energetic and Non-energetic Metal Nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract This study presents a comparative experimental approach to analyze flame temperature, emissions, and radiation behaviors of an oil furnace fueled with nano biodiesel blend fuel containing suspended energetic and non-energetic nanoparticles (NPs). Iron NPs were used as energetic nanoparticles, and alumina (Al2O3) was selected as non-energetic NPs. A dilute homogeneous mixture (500 ppm) was provided from each NPs in B20 blend fuel. The fuels were burned in an oil burner subsequently, and infrared radiation (IR) images of flame, profiles of flame temperature, luminous and total radiation and NOx and CO emissions were gauged and compared. Measurements showed that both NPs improve the evaporation rate of fuel droplets and displace the peak of flame temperature to the flame upstream region. Moreover, nano biodiesel blend fuel containing energetic iron NPs elevates flame temperature while the non-energetic alumina NPs reduce the peak of flame temperature. In addition, both NPs strengthen the nucleation and growth of intermediate soot particles. These fuels containing suspended particles also lead to an increase in the intermediate soot particles content of flame and flame emissivity. This increases IR, luminous, and total flame radiation. The improvement of average flame radiative flux for nano biodiesel blend fuel containing energetic iron NPs and non-energetic alumina NPs is as high as 25% and 10%, respectively. Also, using energetic iron NPs and non-energetic alumina NPs in B20 fuel reduces the NOx emission by 13% and 11%, respectively.