INTERNATIONAL ENERGY JOURNAL

Volume 20, No. 04, Month DECEMBER, Year 2020, Pages 637 - 646

Improvement of heat transfer on solid fuel combustor system using waste steel nuts as porous media

Buncha Puttakoon, Boonrit Prasartkaew, Kitipong Jaojaruek

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This study investigated the performance and efficiency of a hot water combustion system by applying the concept of porous media technology using waste stainless steel nuts and by using wood charcoal as solid fuel. In the experiment, the useful heat output of the product gas was extracted from the reactor to the heat exchange chamber in order to heat the water inside the water tubes packed within the porous media. Results showed the feasibility of using solid as fuel for combustors applied with porous media technology, and the possibility of heat recuperation using porous media. Temperature and heat rate profile fluctuation, however, were noticeable during the experiment as compared to the configuration without the porous media. Furthermore, the effect of using varying sizes of porous media was explored by using 8, 10, and 12 mm stainless steel nuts in the study. With the porous media technique, the 10mm size stainless steel nuts with the porosity of 0.53 greatly improved the performance of the proposed solid fuel porous media combustor (SFPMC) system. At steady state combustion condition, the maximum average combustion temperature reached 1,002°C and the average thermal efficiency of 67 %, was obtained with heat balance error less than 10%.

Keywords

combustor, heat transfer, porous media, solid fuel, waste stainless steel nut.

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