Impact of fuel size on combustion performance and gaseous pollutant emissions from solid fuel in a domestic cross-draft gasifier stove

Although severe air pollution has been recognised to be associated with coal combustion, coal is still the main living energy for domestic purposes because of the living habits and low fuel price. Pollutant emission control incoal combustion is urgently needed in the residential sector. In this study, the combustion performanceand gaseous pollutant emissions of a natural draft stove with cross-draft combustor were determined using Shenmu raw coal under different sieved sizes (8-16 mm, 16-20 mm, 20-25 mm, and 25-50 mm). The results showed that the particle size of coal had different effects on firepower and energy efficiency. The coal fuel with a large particle size (25-50 mm) achieved the highest energy efficiency of 82.0%, while the firepower was limited to 13.4 kW. Reducing particle size was helpful to increase the firepower. Low emission factors of CO, NO and SO2 were found in this combustion system with large size coal fuel and the changes were nonlinear. Moreover, manual operation played an important role in pollutant emissions. The heating phase with steady combustion released fewer gaseous pollutants than the ignition and complex cooking/heating phase. These results can provide support for the research on the matching of stoves and coal fuels to deliver clean combustion performance.