Experimental Study on the Performance of Biohythane Combustion in a Porous Radiant Burner Operated on Submerged Mode

Abstract Present energy consumption and environmental conditions have motivated researchers to explore renewable and alternative energy sources for cooking. Biohythane is a renewable fuel, that can be prepared by purifying biomethane and biohydrogen along with CO2, generated from the anaerobic digestion of biological sources like food waste and cow dung. The current research aims to analyze the combustion performances of biohythane in a double-layered porous radiant burner (PRB) made of silicon carbide and ceramic matrix. The experiment was conducted in the PRB by varying the input fuel range (thermal load) of 200–400 kW/m2, and the biohydrogen percentage of 5–20 in the biohythane for lean fuel–air mixture conditions. It was observed that the PRB performed steadily within the equivalence ratio of 0.55–0.76 and offered radiation efficiency of 41.39–89.93%, CO of 11–84 ppm, and NOX of 4–6.1 ppm. As the biohydrogen percentage increases from 5–20 in the biohythane, the temperature, radiation efficiency, and NOX have increased but the CO has decreased. Further, the temperature and NOX emission have increased due to the increase in thermal load and equivalence ratio, but the CO emission has increased with the increase in thermal load only and decreased due to the increase in equivalence ratio in the PRB. Moreover, the radiation efficiency has increased due to the increase in equivalence ratio only. Overall, the PRB offers efficient combustion of biohythane in the range of a low fuel–air combination.