Energy from Mild Cyclonic Combustion (E=MC2)

The current two years project has been designed to be performed within three distinct stages with the major target to develop a MILD cyclonic metal combustion burner. An ambitious target for developing a combustion system with a zero–carbon and zero–emission footprint and with a fully recyclable green metal fuel which is iron. Indeed, the MILD concept in this project refers to combustion under low oxygen concentration and highly preheated combustion air conditions. It is expected within the MILD context that iron powders are oxidized gently with lower burning temperatures which leads to lower nano size iron oxides and also very low NOx emissions. In light of the above mentioned motivations, during the first stage of the project, we renovated an available mild cyclonic burner called MC2–MK2 with a firing rate of 2–3 kW and then during the second stage of the project we go through development of a newer version of the burner called MC2–MK3 with the same firing rate but some new measurement features which would enable us to enrich our understanding about combustion characteristics of iron powders in such moderate scale semi–practical metal fuel combustion systems. Also, during the second phase of the project, we investigate the effects of preheating of the combustion air and its oxygen concentration on the combustion characteristics of the iron powders with different sizes form d< 20 µm to 110 µm. Based on the developed knowledge during the first two phases of the project, we expect to develop an innovative semi–industrial iron fuel burner for practical applications.

People involved in this project:
•Prof. Philip de Goey (Principal investigator)
•Dr. Mohammadreza Baigmohammadi (Principal researcher)
•Dr. Yuriy Shoshin (team member)
•Ir. Tim Spee (team member)

The current two years project has been designed to be performed within three distinct stages with the major target to develop a MILD cyclonic metal combustion burner. An ambitious target for developing a combustion system with a zero–carbon and zero–emission footprint and with a fully recyclable green metal fuel which is iron. Indeed, the MILD concept in this project refers to combustion under low oxygen concentration and highly preheated combustion air conditions. It is expected within the MILD context that iron powders are oxidized gently with lower burning temperatures which leads to lower nano size iron oxides and also very low NOx emissions. In light of the above mentioned motivations, during the first stage of the project, we renovated an available mild cyclonic burner called MC2–MK2 with a firing rate of 2–3 kW and then during the second stage of the project we go through development of a newer version of the burner called MC2–MK3 with the same firing rate but some new measurement features which would enable us to enrich our understanding about combustion characteristics of iron powders in such moderate scale semi–practical metal fuel combustion systems. Also, during the second phase of the project, we investigate the effects of preheating of the combustion air and its oxygen concentration on the combustion characteristics of the iron powders with different sizes form d< 20 µm to 110 µm. Based on the developed knowledge during the first two phases of the project, we expect to develop an innovative semi–industrial iron fuel burner for practical applications.

People involved in this project:
•Prof. Philip de Goey (Principal investigator)
•Dr. Mohammadreza Baigmohammadi (Principal researcher)
•Dr. Yuriy Shoshin (team member)
•Ir. Tim Spee (team member)