Experimental study on effects of particle shape and operating conditions on combustion characteristics of single biomass particles

An experimental study is performed to investigate the ignition, devolatilization, and burnout of single biomass particles of various shapes and sizes under process conditions that are similar to those in an industrial combustor. A charge-coupled device (CCD) camera is used to record the whole combustion process. For the particles with similar volume (mass), cylindrical particles are found to lose mass faster than spherical particles and the burnout time is shortened by increasing the particle aspect ratio (surface area). The conversion times of cylindrical particles with almost the same surface area/volume ratio are very close to each other. The ignition, devolatilization, and burnout times of cylindrical particles are also affected by the oxidizer temperature and oxygen concentration, in which the oxygen concentration is found to have a more pronounced effect on the conversion times at lower oxidizer temperatures.