Combustion of a suspension of biofuel droplets in air

Abstract

This paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies of the combustion of rapeseed methyl ester droplets in comparison with mineral diesel fuel. Droplets of 0.7-1.2 mm diameter were investigated. The effect of the oxidizer equivalence ratio in the range of 1.7-4.0 on the duration of droplet combustion was analyzed using the model of combustion of droplets in an adiabatic shell taking into account Stefan flow. It is shown that the burning time of rapeseed methyl ester droplets is smaller than that of diesel fuel droplets, all other things being equal.