Pulse Combustion Burner As Tool For Increasing The Energy Efficiency

In the revitalization and reconstruction of existing, and in particular in the design and construction of new industrial and thermopower boilers, the ever increasing demands on achieving higher energy efficiency, operating and time readiness, and the reduction of the emission of polluting components of flue gas into the environment have to be considered. These goals are far more difficult to reach for boilers in which as the primary fuel low-value, weakly reactive coal prone to fouling boiler heating surfaces. In connection with this, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Sarajevo, as part of the Pulse Combustion Laboratory, extensive research on the characteristics of combustion of gaseous fuel using pulse combustion burner, was carried out. Here is considered the application of a simple and robust water-cooled burner for pulsating combustion of a modular type, with aerodynamic valves and no moving parts. The burner can be used as a basic or auxiliary burner in a boiler combustion chamber to increase the turbulization of the combustion atmosphere and thereby to increase the efficiency of the chemical energy conversion from the fuel to the heat. In addition, the burner can also be used as a device for generating pressure waves and corresponding sound energy in the combustion chamber zones and/or flue gas ducts with the aim to remove ash and slag deposits from boiler heating surfaces - such application would contribute to more intense heat transfer in the boiler, decreasing fuel consumption, increasing plant operational and time readiness and reducing the emission of polluting components of flue gas to the environment. The paper presents the results of the laboratory research of the dependence of some of the operational performances of the geometry to the conditions of the burner. An analysis of the possible application of this burner for the cleaning of the heating surfaces was carried out on the basis of the results obtained on the boiler model. In this sense, the generation and propagation of the pressure waves and the accompanying sound energy of the broad spectrum in the boiler model give very encouraging results.