Abstract
Porous medium combustion has interesting advantages compared with free flame combustion due to higher burning rates, an increased power dynamic range, extension of the lean flammability limits, and low emissions of pollutants. This article presents the development and testing of a partially premixed porous medium combustor with liquified petroleum gas as fuel. The discrete porous medium is made up of Al(2)O(3) spheres, the size of which is optimized by computer simulation. The NO(x) and CO emissions are measured for different numbers of porous layers and for different sizes of ceramic spheres, under both steady state and transient conditions of combustion. The data so obtained are plotted and compared with that of free flame combustion. The results show that the burner has good combustion efficiency and significantly lower NO(x) and CO emissions compared to the conventional combustor.