Combustion characteristics of a low calorific gas burner with ceramic foam enclosed by alumina pellets

The utilization of low calorific gas contributes to the energy conservation and environment protection. In order to improve the utilization efficiency, a porous media burner combining the alumina pellets and ceramic foam was established. The effects of the pellets diameter and pore density of ceramic foam on the combustion characteristics were studied, and the burner starting was also investigated to optimize the porous structure. The results showed that the maximum temperature increased first and then decreased with the increasing of pore density, but it decreased with the increasing of pellets diameter with certain conditions. The smaller pore density of the ceramic foam and the larger diameter of the pellets were conducive to the rapid start-up of the burner. Through the combination of ceramic foam and pellets from the radical direction, the flame can propagate quickly to the inside of the burner. As the inlet velocity increased, the flame location moved to the downstream layer. However, the flame location moved to the upstream layer with a higher equivalence ratio.