Characteristics of flame stability and gaseous emission of biocrude-oil/ethanol blends in a pilot-scale spray burner

A burner system with capacity of 30,000 kcal/h was designed for the combustion of biocrude-oil and ethanol blends. An air atomizing spray nozzle with larger fuel orifice was adopted to prevent nozzle clogging, with swirl flow introduced to the combustion air for flame stabilization. Biocrude-oil was prepared from the fast pyrolysis of woody biomass and was blended with ethanol to improve flame stability and ignition characteristics. At various mixing ratios of biocrude-oil and ethanol, flame stability was determined, and gaseous emissions of CO and NO were measured. It was found that stable combustion could be achieved with up to 90 vol% of biocrude-oil. CO emissions of biocrude-oil/ethanol blends were smaller than those of pure ethanol, whereas CO concentration increased significantly in case of pure biocrude-oil due to incomplete combustion. Pollutant NO emission increased slightly with the biocrude-oil mixing ratio. The biocrude-oil burner in this study could provide a design database for industrial burner development. •A burner system with 30,000 kcal/h is designed for the biocrude-oil combustion.•An air atomizing spray nozzle is adopted for fuel atomization.•Flame stability is investigated at various mixing ratios of biocrude-oil and ethanol.•Stable combustion is achieved up to 90 vol% of biocrude-oil.•Pollutant NO emission increases slightly with biocrude-oil mixing ratio.