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• An experimental design was used to investigate the effects of different torrefaction conditions on the properties of biomass. • Two spectrometers were simultaneously used to capture high SNR signals of continuous spectrum and characteristic spectrum. • In-situ detection of the temperature and K release concentration of torrefied biomass pellet combustion was achieved. • Changes in combustion characteristics and K release characteristics of torrefied biomass were evaluated. The orthogonal experiment designed in this paper investigated the effect of changes in experimental parameters such as biomass species, torrefaction temperature, torrefaction time, torrefaction oxygen concentration on the physicochemical properties and combustion characteristics of the torrefaction products. Two optical fiber spectrometers were used to capture the spontaneous emission spectra of the combustion flame of compressed pellets of torrefied biomass, and the in-situ measurement of pellet combustion temperature and K release concentration at high heating rate was realized by multi-spectral analysis algorithm. The experimental results indicate that for biomass, torrefaction will lead to a decrease of volatile and moisture content and an increase of fixed carbon and ash content in components, a decrease of O and H and an increase of C content in elements, a certain loss of biomass quality, an increase of high heat value, and each indicator move closer to coal. The effects of various experimental parameters on the volatile content, mass yield, high heat value increase rate and energy yield in biomass torrefaction products have similar laws, i.e., biomass species / torrefaction oxygen concentration > torrefaction temperature > torrefaction time. The mild torrefaction product pellets have a shorter ignition delay, increased volatile combustion flame height and peak temperature, longer volatile and char combustion duration, but lower peak char combustion temperature, among which the selected torrefaction products of rice straw and pine wood showed an increase in peak temperature of 0.56 % (11 K) and 0.61 % (12 K) for the volatile stage respectively, and a decrease of and 1.29 % (20 K) and 1.29 % (21 K) for the char stage respectively. In addition, the peak K release concentration during combustion of the mild torrefaction product pellets was reduced, among which the peak K release concentrations during the volatile and char stage were reduced by 43.22 % (3.89 ppm) and 52.93 % (51.55 ppm) of the rice straw torrefaction product respectively, and by 73.14 % (1.28 ppm) and 62.08 % (15.01 ppm) for the pine wood torrefaction product respectively. Biomass torrefaction products have fuel properties closer to coal, less K released from the combustion process, which have the potential to become an alternative to coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper presents the inversion of two-dimensional (2-D) distributions of temperature and soot volume fraction from visible flame images. Experimental investigation was conducted in an axisymmetric, co-flow, ethylene/air laminar diffusion flame. A color digital camera was used to capture the flame image in visible spectrum. With consideration of the broad response spectrum of R, G, and B bands of the camera, the directional emissive power of R and G bands were calibrated and used to reconstruct 2-D distributions of temperature and soot volume fraction in the flame. The profiles of temperature and soot volume fraction reconstructed in this paper are both in good agreement with those obtained by multi-wavelength emission technique. The preliminary results showed that this technique is reliable and effective to diagnose combustion processes of sooting flames. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The magnetic effect on soot properties in ethylene inverse diffusion flames (IDF) was investigated in this study. The investigation involved the use of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis (HRTEM), Raman spectroscopy analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) to examine the nanostructure and graphitization degree of soot collected from flame exhaust gas at various height above burner surface (HAB) under both magnetic and non-magnetic conditions. Increasing the magnetic flux density resulted in modifications to soot properties. When the sampling height was HAB = 4 cm, increasing magnetic flux density resulted in longer fringe lengths, lower fringe tortuosity, less amorphous carbon content and surface oxygen content for the collected soot from flame exhaust gas. These results indicated higher graphitization degrees, which may be attributed to longer residence time and oxidation of soot particle in flames. Moreover, when the sampling height increased from HAB = 4 cm to 6 cm under non-magnetic condition, the nanostructure of soot in the flame exhaust gas was more organized, possible due to the oxidation of soot at the region between HAB = 4 and 6 cm region. However, with the magnetic field on, the crystalline structure of soot in the flame exhaust gas became increasingly disordered as the sampling height increased. This suggested that the soot may also be affected by the magnetic effects in addition to oxidation at the region between HAB = 4 and 6 cm region. The magnetic effect could trigger the transformation of graphitic carbon to amorphous carbon in soot particles as they passed through the magnetic field. With more elaborated magnetic fields, the magnetic effect on soot could contribute to strategies controlling soot emissions and removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soot inception limits and its difference in coflow flames are interpreted in C/O ratio space. • Effects of Z st on soot inception are studied using kinetics analysis in C/O ratio space. • The position of chemiluminescence in C/O ratio space and the effect of Z st on it are evaluated. • Considering the low-emission combustion technology, oxy-combustion. This study investigates soot inception limits of laminar coflow diffusion flames in the carbon-to-oxygen atom (C/O) ratio space, as well as the mechanism of flame structure affecting soot inception. And chemiluminescence characteristics in flames are evaluated. Oxy-ethylene flames with the same adiabatic flame temperature (2500 K) and different stoichiometric mixture fractions (Z st , 0.3–0.6) are investigated by relocating CO 2 from oxidant to fuel. The position of soot inception and the chemiluminescence of CH*, C 2 *, and CO 2 * are measured by a hyperspectral imager. A numerical model with a detailed kinetic mechanism is used to obtain the temperature and gas-phase species concentration. The results prove that the critical C/O ratio favorable for soot inception is 0.53, and the critical temperatures on the flame centerline and sheet are 1322 K and 1632 K, respectively. The comparatively low temperature on the flame centerline can cause soot inception, as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentration and residence time can guarantee the collision and cluster formation of PAHs. Although fuel pyrolysis is promoted on the flame sheet, oxygen-containing species dilutes the concentrations of fuel pyrolysis products and PAHs to limit soot inception, necessitating high temperatures for chemical bond formation. Furthermore, the mixture fraction, local C/O ratio, and net reaction and production rate are calculated, and the key reaction paths are also identified. The results demonstrate that the increase of Z st achieves the suppression of soot inception by lowering the formation of benzene and PAHs in the high C/O ratio (>0.5) zone, improving the oxygenation in the low C/O ratio (<0.5) zone, and compressing the C/O ratio space favorable for soot formation. Meanwhile, the (CH* and C 2 *) chemiluminescence zone with a C/O ratio of roughly 0.5 exists in the flame. With Z st increases, the CH* and C 2 * chemiluminescence diminishes at the flame root and enhances downstream, whereas CO 2 * chemiluminescence remains unaltered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass combustion for heat and power generation is one of the best ways for substituting fossil fuels. It is necessary to develop in situ temperature and emissivity measurement technology for biomass volatile flame. In this study, combustion experiments on three biomass pellets of pine wood, rice husk and fir wood were carried out in a laboratory biomass burner at two A/F flowrates. A multi-wavelength radiation thermometry method was proposed to calculate temperature and wavelength-dependent emissivity based on Rayleigh approximation. The results showed that the temperature and emissivity of pine wood combustion were higher than those of rice husk and fir wood volatile flames. Though the emissivity of rice husk was less than that of fir wood, the temperature of rice husk combustion was higher than that of fir wood due to the latter's higher moisture content. The temperatures measured by the spectrometer system agreed well with the thermocouple data. The normalized emissivities of the three different biomass show the same trend, indicating the radiative properties of biomass volatile flames do not change with biomass species and combustion conditions. • A radiation thermometry was proposed to measure biomass volatile matter flame. • Flame temperature of pine wood was higher than those of rice husk and fir wood. • The combustion emissivity of rice husk was less than that of fir wood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]