Development of a Low-Emission Spray Combustor for Emulsified Crude Oil

Abstract

A sub-scale and engineering-scale burner were designed, built, and tested in an effort to develop a single nozzle burner capable of efficiently atomizing and burning neat, emulsified, and weathered crude oil for spill response and remediation. The sub-scale and engineering-scale burners were capable of burning 22.9 bbl/day and 91.5 bbl/day, respectively. We discovered that the flow-blurring atomizers used in these burners were able to effectively atomize the highly viscous emulsified crude oil, even with nozzle diameters of 12.7 mm and 25.7 mm. The increasing size of both the atomizer and burner geometry has been shown to increase burn temperature without negatively impacting burner performance. A parallel laboratory study used a flat-flame stabilized spray burner to examine fundamental spray combustion behavior. It was shown that flame radiation has a significant impact on the droplet ignition and spray flame propagation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 03, 2017
Accession Number
AD1030114

Entities

People

  • Alfredo D. Tuesta
  • Brian T. Fisher
  • Katherine M. Hinnant
  • Michael Weismiller
  • Steven G. Tuttle
  • Thomas N. Loegel

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alkanes
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Hydrocarbon Fuels
  • Ignition Lag
  • Liquid Chromatography
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Material Degradation Processes
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Organic Chemistry

Readers

  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.
  • Marine Ecotoxicology