Second Periodic Report, 1.1.2003 - 31.12.2003, Combustion Fundamentals of PO and PO based fuels in lab scale equipment - EU Contract ENK5-CT-2002-00690 "COMBIO: A New Competitive Liquid Biofuel for Heating"

In the first year, the activities concerned the development of the drop tube furnace (DTF) and the single droplet combustion chamber (SDCC) experimental systems. The main features regarding the optical systems, droplets handling, gas and particulate matter sampling and analysis were defined. Different systems to ignite suspended droplets were proved. The procedure to obtain a stable spray of calibrated droplets of emulsions in DTF was defined. A procedure to sample exhausts from the SDCC was established and gases and particulate matter analyses were carried out. The systematic study on the combustion behaviour of emulsions and parent fuels in the SDCC was also initiated. Tests were carried out on six pyrolysis oil (PO) based fuels: i) two emulsions (prepared by CSGI) of PO oil in light oil; ii) the parent oil (provided by VTT) used to prepare the emulsions; iii) a pure oil (supplied by VTT) and a mixture of the oil with ethyl alcohol; iii) Forestera oil (provided by Fortum).