An experimental study on high temperature and low oxygen air combustion

High temperature preheated and diluted air combustion has been confirmed as the technology, mainly applied to industrial furnaces and kilns, for realizing higher thermal efficiency and lower emissions. The purpose of this study was to investigate fundamental aspects of the above-mentioned combustion experimentally and to compare with those in ordinary hydrocarbon combustion with room temperature air. The test items were exhaust gas components of CO, NOx, flame shape and radical components of CH, OH and C2, which we measured with gas analyser, camera and ICCD (Intensified Charged-Coupled Device) camera. Many phenomena, as a result, which appeared in the combustion with the oxidizer, low oxygen concentration and extremely high temperature air, such as expansion of the flammable limits, increased flame propagation speed, looked very strange in comparison with those in existing combustion technology. We confirmed that such extraordinary phenomena were believable through a hot-test experiment.