Experimental Research on the Flame Temperature

of Biodiesel Fuel Combustion

in Open-air Conditions
Mao Gongping*, Wang Zhong, Hu pengˈNi Peiyong, Wang Xiaozhe, Gu shi-qiang
School of Automobile and Traffic Engineering
Jiangsu University
Zhenjiang, China

Abstract—Biodiesel fuel is a non-fossil fuel and an important The combustion flame of candle was divided into eight
renewable fuel. It can be obtained from vegetable oil or parts by Gaydon[10], which is showed as fig.1 (a). They
animal fats, and has recently been suggested as an are 1-lampwick, 2-dark area, 3-area of C2 and CH, 4-area
alternative fuel for immediate utilization as a surrogate for of irradiance, 5-the main reaction area, 6-area of flame
petroleum-based fuels. The combustion of biodiesel fuel or
blended with diesel fuel in compression ignition (CI) engines
core, 7-area of middle flame, 8-area of outer flame. The
is general results in lower smoke, PM, CO and HC emissions flame temperatures of the eight parts have been measure
compared to standard diesel fuel, while NOx emission is and analyzed by Gaydon in his work. In this paper, several
greater in different extent. Flame temperature of biodiesel indexes of flame temperature of biodiesel fuel combustion
fuel combustion plays a very important role on the in open-air condition have been put forward, the
formation of NOx emission, which is described by Zeldovich correlation between flame temperature distribution and
mechanism. Thus, studying temperature profile during physical and chemical properties of biodiesel fuel has
biodiesel combustion can provide useful insights to the been represented. The results of this study are expected to
formation and destruction of NOx. The main objective of provide some insights into understanding the combustion
this work is to investigate the effect of blending biodiesel fuel
with diesel fuel on open air flames temperature. The
of biodiesel fuel in engine chamber.
experiments were carried out by thermocouple
measurements of local flame temperatures of wick- II. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
generated open air flames. The relationships between blend
proportions and flame temperature of different layers, The experiments were carried out using different
number and distribution of high temperature points, proportions of fuel blends prepared by biodiesel fuel and
relative and mean flame temperature, adiabatic flame diesel fuel. The proportion of is 100:0, 80:20, 60:40,
temperature, rate of fuel combustion were obtained. In 40:60, 20:80, and 0:100, respectively named B100, B80,
general, it was found that along with the proportions of B60, B40, B20, B0.Biodiesel fuel is obtained from waste
biodiesel fuel in the blends increases, temperature of outer cooking oil.
flame, numbers of high temperature points and their
corresponding area, relative and mean flame temperature,
adiabatic flame temperature are all increased, while
adiabatic flame temperature is decreased. The main reasons
are due to higher oxygen content and lower calorific value of
biodiesel fuel.

Keywords-Biodiesel fuel; Combustion; Flame temperature;

Oxygen content
1-Computer 2-CCD camera 3- Black closed chamber
4- Alcohol burner 5-Weighting balance 6-Data display
I. INTRODUCTION 7- Thermocouple
More and more diesel engines are used for passenger Figure 1. Structure and measure points of flam
cars in China. In the name of energy emissions compared
to standard diesel fuel, while NOx emission is greater in
different extent[1-4]. It has been explained that the rate of
combustion is accelerated because of about 10% oxygen
in mass in biodiesel fuel, thus PM, CO and HC emissions
reduced, while NOx emission is greater due to more
oxygen contain and higher flame temperature[5-7]. On the
other side, the flame temperature of biodiesel fuel should
be smaller than that of diesel fuel due to greater cetane
number of biodiesel fuel, so NOx emission should be
smaller in theory[8]. There are two opposite viewpoints.
According to Zeldovich mechanism[9], Thermal NO (a) (b)
formation is the main contributor to NOx emissions. So
it’s necessary to researching the flame temperature of Figure 2. Structure and measure points of flame
biodiesel fuel.

978-1-4244-8039-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

 Table.1 shows the main properties of biodiesel fuel. TABLEĉ MAIN PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF FUELS
The combustion set-up was enclosed in a black closed Items Units Diesel fuel[12] Biodiesel fuel
chamber as shown in Fig. 2. In atmospheric conditions Fitted molecular
Fuel blends were combusted using cotton wicks of same — C14.8H28.7 C16.7H31.1O2
formula
length (8 cm) and same diameter (6 mm). A type-K Low calorific value MJ/kg 42.5 33.6
thermocouple with a probe diameter of 0.5 mm was used
Oxygen content wt% §0 12.14
to measure the flame temperature of different points.
Thermal images were taken using a CCD camera and Density at 20ć kg/m3 820 881
treated by images software. The original and treated Cetane number — 45 51.2
images are showed as Fig.3. Fuel consumption rate was Kinematic viscosity
measured using a digital balance. mm2/s 3.0-8.0 4.47
at 20ć
LHV
III. EVALUATION INDEXES Tp = T0 + ˄˅
(1 + AF ) C
grav , s p

A. Relative Flame Temperature Where T0 is environment temperature, LHV is lower

heating value of fuel, Cp is the average specific heat of
The diameter of the thermocouple probe is expected to the products, AFgrav,s is the stoichiometric air-fuel
change the flame profile while the probe was inserted to ratio(in mass). On the assumption a typical biodiesel fuel
measure the flame temperature. According to Saroj’s has a general chemical formula CxH2yO2z. The chemical
research[8], diameter of the thermocouple used was 1 mm equation for stoichiometric combustion can be written as
whereas the flame diameter varied in between 4 and 6 follows:
mm. Consequently, In order to reduce the error associated C x H 2 y O2 z + a [ O2 + 3.76 N 2 ] → xCO2 + yH 2 O + (3.76a)
with temperature measurement using the thermocouple,
the relative flame temperature( Ƹ T) was chosen for AFgrav,s can be written as formula (4):
analysis instead of absolute temperatures, like formula (1) § 2x + y − 2z ·
as follow: AFgrav , s = 34.32 ¨ ¸ ˄4˅
© 6 x + y + 16 z ¹
 ΔT = TB − TD  ˄˅
The calorific value of the blends can be computed
Where TB means the measure points’ temperature of using the following formula (5):
biodiesel fuel and the blend fuel of biodiesel fuel and
diesel fuel, TB means the measure points’ temperature of Huc= Hua•Ma+Hub•Mb ˄5˅
diesel fuel.
Here c, a, b mean the blends, diesel fuel, and biodiesel
fuel, respectively. Huc, Hua, Hub mean the calorific
B. Mean Flame Temperature value of the blends, diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel,
respectively, and Ma, Mb mean the proportion of
Because the temperatures of different points are
biodiesel fuel and diesel fuel in mass, respectively.
different, mean flame temperature(TM) is used to study
the temperature of some fuel on the whole. The definition
of Tm is like formula (2): D. Relative fuel rate of fuel consumption
3
Relative fuel rate of fuel consumption, Rate of fuel
¦i =1 Ti Si 2
8
consumption, named B, is written as formula (6):
Tm = 3 ˄2˅  B = ( m2 − m1 ) (t 2 − t1 )  ˄˅
¦i
8
=1
Si 2
Where m1, m2 is respectively balance reading at time of t1
Where Ti and Ts is the temperature and area of measure and t2. In order to reduce error relative rate of fuel
point in respective. consumption, named ƸB, is used and it can be written as
formula (7):
C. Adiabatic Flame Temperature  ΔB = BB − BD  ˄˅
Where BB, BD is fuel consumption rate of biodiesel
Adiabatic flame temperature[9] is computed by
component and diesel fuel in respective.
formula(3):

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION


B0 B20 B40 B60 B80 B100 B0 B20 B40 B60 B80 B100
(a) original images (b) treated images
Figure 3. Original and treated images of fuel blends combustion flame
A. Flame temperature of different layers
Fig.3 shows that the combustion flame has three TABLEɉ AREA OF FLAME (UNIT: MM2)
different colors, just like three layers. It’s assumed that the Fuel B0 B20 B40 B60 B80 B100
three layers’ names are outer flame, central flame and inner 1 113 87 71 87 57 85
flame. Flame temperature of eight points is measured by 2 225 175 142 175 114 171
Thermocouple. Table.3 shows the results. It’s supposed that 3 306 277 248 308 250 158
points 8, 3, 5 refer to outer flame, points 7 refers to central 4 113 87 71 87 57 85
flame, and points 1, 2, 4, 6 refer to inner flame. According Points
5 306 277 248 308 250 158
to formula (2) flame temperature of different layers can be 6 225 175 142 175 114 171
computed. 7 96 105 59 94 46 12
Fig.4 shows the comparison of different layers’ 8 105 107 63 90 58 11
temperature of different proportions of mixed fuels. The
reasons are that oxygen content increases with the TABLE III. NUMBER OF HIGH TEMPERATURE POINTS AND ITS
proportion of biodiesel fuel increases, which lead to more CORRESPONDING AREA PROPORTION
efficiency of combustion and higher temperature. On the Fuel Number Point Area/%
other hand, because the Low calorific value of biodiesel fuel B0 1 6 15
is smaller than that of diesel fuel, that of mixed fuel is B20 2 5ǃ6 35
reduced with the proportion of biodiesel fuel increases. B40 3 4ǃ5ǃ6 44
Accordingly, it could be speculated that the change of flame B60 3 4ǃ5ǃ6 43
temperature is associated more with oxygen content of the
fuel being used than the calorific value of a fuel. B80 3 4ǃ5ǃ6 45
B100 5 2ǃ3ǃ4ǃ5ǃ6 87
B. High temperature points one’s temperature is higher than 1000 K. Table.3 shows the
number of high temperature points and its corresponding
It’s assumed that the point is high temperature point if

Figure 4.Comparison of different layers’ temperature Figure 5. Comparison of relative and mean temperature

Figure 6. Comparison of adiabatic flame temperature Figure 7. Comparison of rate of fuel consumption
 TABLE IV. MASS FRACTION OF COMBUSTION PRODUCTION obtained. The main conclusions are described that the oxygen
Fuel B0 B20 B40 B60 B80 B100 content in an oxygenated hydrocarbon fuel plays an important
CO2 0.716 0.718 0.719 0.721 0.722 0.724 role in determining its open air flame temperature
H2O 0.284 0.282 0.281 0.279 0.278 0.276 characteristics. It was observed that more the proportion of
biodiesel fuel in the blends, more were the flame temperature
area of different mixed fuel. It can be seen that as the
of outer flame, numbers of high temperature points and their
proportion of biodiesel fuel in the blends increase, the number
corresponding area, relative and mean flame temperature,
of high temperature points and area increase. The main
adiabatic flame temperature, rate of fuel combustion, while
reasons are due to more oxygen content of biodiesel fuel.
less was rate of fuel combustion. The main reasons are because
of higher oxygen content, density and viscosity of biodiesel
C. Relative and mean flame temperature fuel in comparison to diesel fuel, and smaller calorific value of
Mean flame temperature can be computed according to biodiesel fuel. More suitable environment for NOx formation
formula (2). The relative mean flame temperature refers to the is appeared when burning biodiesel fuel than diesel fuel.
difference of mean flame temperature of biodiesel fuel and Insights obtained from this research coupled with an in-depth
that of diesel fuel, in order to reduce error. It is clear in Fig.5 study in an engine environment will be helpful to underpin
that relative mean flame temperature become greater with the NOx emissions behavior of biodiesel fuel and the blends.
proportion of biodiesel fuel in the blends increase, especially
for B100. It can be concluded that greater proportions of ACKNOWLEDGMENT
biodiesel fuel in the blends, more suitable environment is exist
for NOx formation. This study was financially supported High Level Talent
Start Project of Jiangsu University under the contract No.
D. Adiabatic flame temperature 10JDG076.
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