EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS IN THE BYU CONTROLLED PROFILE REACTOR

Energy conversion of fossil fuels or waste products to electricity and heat through clean and efficient combustion processes continues to be an issue of international importance. The Controlled Profile Reactor (CPR) is a small scale (0.2-0.4 MW) combustion facility that has been used to obtain data for model validation, the testing of new combustio n concepts, and the development of new combustion instrumentation The CPR has a cylindrical, down-fired combustion chamber, 240 cm long and 80 cm in diameter. This review of the past ten years of research compl eted in the CPR includes a description of the reactor and instrumentat ion used a summary of three experimental data sets which have been obt ained in the reactor, and a description of novel tests and instrumenta tion. Measurements obtained include gas species, gas temperature, part icle velocity, particle size, particle number density, particle-cloud temperature profiles, radiation and total heat flux to the wall, and w all temperatures. Species data include the measurement of CO, CO2, NO, NOx, O-2, NH3, and HCN. The three combustion studies included one wit h natural gas combustion in a swirling how, and two pulverized-coal co mbustion studies involving Utah Blind Canyon and Pittsburgh #8 coals. Most, but not all of the above measurements were obtained in each stud y. The second coal study involving the Pittsburgh #8 coal contained th e most complete set of data and is described in detail in Section 3 of the paper. Novel combustion instrumentation includes the use of Coher ent And-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS) to measure gas temperature. N ovel combustion experiments include the measurement of NOx and burnout with coal-char blends, The measurements have led to an improved under standing of the combustion process and an understanding of the strengt hs and weaknesses associated with different aspects of comprehensive c ombustion models. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd AU rights reserved.