The paper presents results of theoretical numerical research dealing with CO and NOX emission performed in the process of optimization of the performance of low-power atmospheric burners. The theoretical part of this paper, whose main goals were better understanding of the complex issues of methodology and establishment of performance prediction and optimization of low-power atmospheric gas burner included numerical variation of independent parameters, such as burner geometry, the coefficients of primary and secondary air and different gaseous fuels including biogas. The findings of theoretically obtained performance prediction and optimization of atmospheric burners were experimentally investigated in purpose built test rigs for a number of variable parameters. The obtained results fully justified the proposed models of performance prediction and burner optimization.

Utilization of hydrocarbon gaseous fuels, such as biogas, landfill gas and others, is a valuable contribution to sustainable energy production and climate changing control. The presence of CO in these gases decreases heat of combustion, flame temperature, 2 flame speed and can induce flame blow-off and combustion instabilities. In order to better understand the problem, flame geometry and location was investigated using * chemiluminescence (CH) imaging technique. Combustion took place in a purposely built, lean, premixed, unconfined swirl burner, fueled by methane and propane diluted with CO. The fuel type, air-to-fuel equivalence ratio and CO content were chosen as the 2 2 * independent variables. The CH imaging by means of a commercial CCD camera, fitted with an optical filter, was used for flame investigation. The analysis of images showed * that the CH emission intensity, flame geometry and location were remarkably affected by the fuel type and the air-to-fuel equivalence ratio, while the CO dilution was of minor 2 importance.

A numerical investigation of combustion of propane-hydrogen mixture in a swirl premixed micro gas turbine combustor is presented. The effects of hydrogen addition into propane on temperature distribution in the combustor, reaction rates of propane and hydrogen and NO x emissions for different equivalence ratios and swirl numbers are given. The propane-hydrogen mixture of 90/10% by volume was assumed. The numerical results and measurements of NO x emissions for pure propane are compared. Excellent agreements are found for all equivalence ratios and swirl numbers, except for the highest swirl number (1.13). It is found that the addition of hydrogen into propane increases NO x emission. On the other hand, the increase of swirl number and the decrease of equivalence ratio decrease the NO x emissions.

The aim of this experimental research is to confirm the correctness of the proposed methodology for optimizing atmospheric gas burners. Also, the burner was tested in actual conditions. The object of this experimental optimization is a typical modern atmospheric gas burner for households (required heat output for average households ranges from 8 to 12 kW) to which the proposed methodology will be applied in order to optimize its design characteristics and performance to obtain energy efficient and an environmentally friendly device.

This article presents innovative method for increasing the speed of procedure which includes complex computational fluid dynamic calculations for finding the distance between flame openings of atmospheric gas burner that lead to minimal NO pollution. The method is based on standard features included in commercial computational fluid dynamic software and shortens computer working time roughly seven times in this particular case.