Effect of waste cooking oil methyl ester – Jet A-1 fuel blends on emissions and combustion characteristics of a swirl-stabilized lean pre-vaporized premixed flame

In the current work, Lean Pre-vaporized Premixed (LPP) combustion concept was used to investigate the flame characteristics of blended fuels using 5, 10, 15, and 20% blending ratios of Waste Cooking Oil Methyl Ester (WCOME) with Jet A-1 (symbolized as B5, B10, B15, and B20). Here, WCOME was produced from raw waste cooking oil by transesterification process with the help of ultrasonicator to reduce the production time. The flame was stabilized using a swirl burner characterized by the formation of central recirculation zone with Swirl Number (SN) equal 0.55; commonly called High Swirl Burner (HSB). The incoming air was preheated to a constant temperature of 250 °C and mixed with air at equivalence ratio φ of 0.75 for all tested fuel blends. Comparing to neat Jet A-1 fuel flame, flames of WCOME/Jet A-1 fuel blend revealed great effect of adding biodiesel to Jet A-1 on local and global emission characteristics of LPP combustion with comparable temperature distributions. Results showed a significant reduction in CO and NOx emissions indices for B20 at combustor exit by 41% and 30%, respectively, compared to those for pure Jet A-1 fuel. Aiming to increase the share of biofuel in fuel combustion, it can be concluded that, Jet A-1 fuel can be replaced by B20 without any modifications in the combustor design as they have similar temperature distribution with potential to remarkably reduce emissions.