Numerical Investigation of Compatibility of Synthetic Natural Gas with Conventional Liquefied Petroleum Gas Burners

Abstract

Nepal is seeking carbon-free alternative fuels due to environmental concerns and economic issues resulting from fossil fuel usage. Carbon-neutral SNG has the potential as an alternative to LPG gas in domestic cooking, but traditional LPG equipment may not be compatible with SNG. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to study the compatibility of traditional LPG equipment with SNG, and it was found that essential optimization is needed to obtain optimal cooking conditions by SNG combustion. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) was used to determine the optimum inlet pressure for varying nozzle sizes. Based on the results of the study, it was determined that the optimal nozzle size for the selected type of burner is 1.15 mm. This particular nozzle size was found to provide better uniformity of flame temperature and complete combustion, resulting in an average temperature of 1700 K at a fuel inlet pressure of 2.75 kPa. This makes it a potentially better option for cooking compared to LPG, as it could potentially provide faster cooking times. The results were verified using the Python CANTERA model. A 40-50% increase in the nozzle orifice size from the traditional LPG nozzle orifice size is suggested for such conversions.