Influence of Asphaltene Concentration on the Combustion of a Heavy Fuel Oil Droplet
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INFLUENCE OF ASPHALTENE CONCENTRATION ON THE COMBUSTION OF A HEAVY FUEL OIL DROPLET Item Type Article Authors Alkhateeb, Abdulrahman; Elbaz, Ayman M.; Guida, Paolo; Roberts, William L. Citation Khateeb A, Elbaz AM, Guida P, Roberts WL (2018) INFLUENCE OF ASPHALTENE CONCENTRATION ON THE COMBUSTION OF A HEAVY FUEL OIL DROPLET. Energy & Fuels. Available: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b03260. Eprint version Post-print DOI 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b03260 Publisher American Chemical Society (ACS) Journal Energy & Fuels Rights This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Energy & Fuels, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ acs.energyfuels.8b03260. Download date 27/09/2021 18:19:19 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10754/630014 Subscriber access provided by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Library Combustion INFLUENCE OF ASPHALTENE CONCENTRATION ON THE COMBUSTION OF A HEAVY FUEL OIL DROPLET Abdulrahman Khateeb, Ayman M. Elbaz, Paolo Guida, and William L. Roberts Energy Fuels, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b03260 • Publication Date (Web): 16 Nov 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on November 22, 2018 Just Accepted “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. They are posted online prior to technical editing, formatting for publication and author proofing. The American Chemical Society provides “Just Accepted” as a service to the research community to expedite the dissemination of scientific material as soon as possible after acceptance. “Just Accepted” manuscripts appear in full in PDF format accompanied by an HTML abstract. “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been fully peer reviewed, but should not be considered the official version of record. They are citable by the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®). “Just Accepted” is an optional service offered to authors. Therefore, the “Just Accepted” Web site may not include all articles that will be published in the journal. After a manuscript is technically edited and formatted, it will be removed from the “Just Accepted” Web site and published as an ASAP article. Note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the manuscript text and/or graphics which could affect content, and all legal disclaimers and ethical guidelines that apply to the journal pertain. ACS cannot be held responsible for errors or consequences arising from the use of information contained in these “Just Accepted” manuscripts. is published by the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036 Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical Society. However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course of their duties. Page 1 of 48 Energy & Fuels 1 2 3 4 INFLUENCE OF ASPHALTENE CONCENTRATION ON 5 6 7 THE COMBUSTION OF A HEAVY FUEL OIL DROPLET 8 9 Abdulrahman A. Khateeba*, Ayman M. Elbaza, Paolo Guidaa, William L. 10 11 12 Robertsa 13 14 15 a 16 Clean Combustion Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and 17 18 Technology, 19 Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. 20 21 22 *Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] 23 24 25 Highlights 26 27 Thermogravimetric analysis of heavy fuel oil samples at different asphaltene 28 concentration is discussed. 29 30 The influence of high asphaltene concentration on the droplet burning stages is 31 illustrated. 32 33 The relation between the droplet ignition delay time and droplet size is discussed 34 35 at different asphaltene concentration. 36 The effect of asphaltene concentration on the droplet evolution with time is 37 38 measured. 39 40 Keywords 41 42 Asphaltene, Burning stages, Heavy fuel oil, Thermogravimetric analysis. 43 44 45 Nomenclature 46 퐴 47 frequency factor 48 퐸 activation energy 49 푘 50 rate constant 51 푛 reaction order 52 53 푅 universal gas constant 54 푡 time 55 56 푇 absolute temperature 57 58 59 60 ACS Paragon Plus Environment Energy & Fuels Page 2 of 48 1 2 3 4 wt% weight percentage 5 훼 fraction decomposition 6 7 API American petroleum institute 8 ASTM American society for testing and materials 9 10 DTG differential thermogravimetric 11 FD fuel decomposition 12 13 FT-ICR Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance 14 GDT glowing delay time 15 16 HFO heavy fuel oil 17 18 HTO high-temperature oxidation 19 IDT ignition delay time 20 21 Le Lewis number 22 LTO low-temperature oxidation 23 24 NMR nuclear magnetic resonance 25 Slpm standard liter per minute 26 27 TGA thermogravimetric analysis 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 1 59 60 ACS Paragon Plus Environment Page 3 of 48 Energy & Fuels 1 2 3 4 Abstract 5 6 7 Heavy fuel oils consist of a blend of middle distillates, mainly diesel fuel, and 8 9 10 heavy oil residuals. Varying the fraction of the mixture changes the weight percentage 11 12 13 of the asphaltene in the heavy fuel oil (HFO) sample. Asphaltene is a very high molecular 14 15 16 weight complex component in the fuel which increases the fuel viscosity, surface tension, 17 18 19 and chemical reaction rate. Here, we investigate the influence of high asphaltene 20 21 22 concentration on the combustion of a single HFO droplet. In this experimental work, we 23 24 25 used the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the suspended droplet techniques. We 26 27 28 tested HFO samples containing asphaltene at 8, 16, 24 wt% (HFO8, HFO16, and 29 30 31 HFO24). The TGA result shows a residual amount of approximately 2.4 wt% of the 32 33 34 HFO24 compared to no residuals for the HFO8 at the end of the process. The suspended 35 36 37 38 droplet technique results reveal the following seven consecutive burning stages for the 39 40 41 entire burning process of the liquid and solid phases: 1) pre-heating, 2) flame startup, 42 43 44 3) inner evaporation, 4) thermal decomposition, 5) solidification, 6) coke pre-ignition, and 45 46 47 7) smoldering. The temperature range of the various burning stages is seen to be 48 49 50 independent of both the concentration of the asphaltene and the initial size of the droplet. 51 52 53 On the other hand, both the total burning time and ignition delay time become longer 54 55 56 by 40% and 26% respectively as the content of the asphaltene increases from 8 to 24 57 58 2 59 60 ACS Paragon Plus Environment Energy & Fuels Page 4 of 48 1 2 3 4 wt% in the HFO sample. The evolution of the droplet’s size in time shows that the 5 6 7 maximum size of the droplet becomes larger by a factor of 2 for the HFO24 compared 8 9 10 to the HFO8 sample. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 3 59 60 ACS Paragon Plus Environment Page 5 of 48 Energy & Fuels 1 2 3 4 1. Introduction 5 6 7 As the demand for hydrocarbon fuels continues to increase rapidly, oil production 8 9 10 industries and consumers are paying considerable attention to the dynamic performance 11 12 13 and reliability of the combustion process of these fuels. Heavy fuel oil (HFO) has 14 15 16 generated increasing interest due to its lower costs, higher durability and heat efficiency 17 18 19 compared to similar conventional light oils. Since 2015, HFO market prices have remained 20 21 22 approximately 30% lower than crude oil prices 1. Additionally, the HFO products from a 23 24 25 gasification process, mainly CO and H2, can be primarily used in power generation 26 27 28 systems with lower emissions 2-4. The use of different HFO methodologies, such as the 29 30 31 gasification process, besides the projected fuel prices, indicates a promising consumption 32 33 34 of the heavy fuel oil resources for small-scale power generation systems 5. However, 35 36 37 38 the use of HFO is facing many challenges due to its negative impacts on the environment, 39 40 41 resulting mainly from the emissions of cenospheres and oxides of sulfur. Additionally, 42 43 44 HFO has harmful corrosive effects on the equipment used in power generation systems, 45 46 47 due to its high content of sulfur. For these reasons, the use of HFO as a source of 48 49 50 energy has drastically decreased after reaching the peak in the late of 1970s 5. 51 52 53 The complete combustion of the HFO requires the complete burning of the 54 55 56 volatile constituents, in addition to the coke residues. Otherwise, incomplete combustion 57 58 4 59 60 ACS Paragon Plus Environment Energy & Fuels Page 6 of 48 1 2 3 4 of the fuel occurs and thus is more likely to generate soot and coke particles. The poor 5 6 7 carbon efficiency of HFO leads to a significantly higher amount of pollutant emissions in 8 9 10 the surrounding environment, compared to light fuel oils 6 7. The composition of heavy 11 12 13 fuel oils can vary greatly; as any HFO consists mostly of a blend of middle distillates, 14 15 16 mainly diesel, and a heavy oil residual.