Miniature liquid combustor having double pre-heating structure, and combustion method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10865982-B2
Application number	US-201616085816-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2016
Priority date	Mar 17, 2016
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

A miniature liquid combustor includes a double pre-heating structure. A method of operating the combustor comprises introducing liquid hydrocarbon fuel and air into a combustion chamber and stably combusting above a metal catalytic grid. The flames of the combustor first heating a third sleeve, the heated third sleeve gradually radiating the thermal energy to first and second fuel pre-heating chambers until the entire miniature liquid combustor is heated. The process continues to respectively implement second pre-heating of air introduced into the air pre-heating chambers and fuel introduced into the fuel pre-heating chambers before introducing them into the combustion chamber. The resulting combustor and combustion method enable double counter-flow pre-heating of air and fuel before being introduced into the combustion chamber, such that the air and the fuel are fully preheated before combustion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A miniature liquid combustor comprising:
a double pre-heating structure, including a combustor outer drum body, an upper sealing plate used to seal an upper end of a combustor outer drum body, and a lower sealing plate used to seal a lower end of the combustor outer drum body, and a main vent hole opened on a sidewall of the lower end of the combustor outer drum body, wherein
a first sleeve, a second sleeve, and a third sleeve are sequentially comprised inside the combustor outer drum body, lower ends of the first sleeve, the second sleeve, and the third sleeve are all sealed by a lower sealing plate, upper ends of the first sleeve and the third sleeve are both sealed by using a sealing top lid, and a gap is provided between an outer surface of the sealing top lid and an inner surface of the upper sealing plate, another gap is provided between a top end of the second sleeve and an inner surface of the sealing top lid;
four partition plates that radially penetrate a sleeve wall of the second sleeve are further disposed on the sleeve wall of the second sleeve, an inner side of each partition plate is connected to an inner wall of the third sleeve, an outer side of the partition plate is connected to an inner wall of the first sleeve, an upper side of each partition plate is connected to a sealing top lid, and a lower side of each partition plate is connected to the lower sealing plate, the four partition plates divide a space between the first sleeve, the second sleeve, and the third sleeve into two opposite and independent air pre-heating chambers and two opposite and independent fuel pre-heating chambers;
wherein each of the air pre-heating chambers is divided into a first air pre-heating chamber and a second air pre-heating chamber with a sleeve wall of the second sleeve as a boundary, and a first air pre-heating chamber and a second air pre-heating chamber are connected through a gap between the top end of the second sleeve and an inner surface of the sealing top lid;
wherein each of the fuel pre-heating chambers may be divided into a first fuel pre-heating chamber and a second fuel pre-heating chamber with the sleeve wall of the second sleeve as a boundary, and the first fuel pre-heating chamber and the second fuel pre-heating chamber may be connected through the gap between the top end of the second sleeve and an inner surface of the sealing top lid;
wherein a space in an inner wall surface of the third sleeve includes a combustion chamber, and space between an outer wall surface of the first sleeve and an inner wall surface of the combustor outer drum body includes a vent channel, and the combustion chamber and the vent channel are connected through a top-layer loop channel between the outer surface of the sealing top lid and an inner surface of an upper sealing plate;
wherein one combustion-chamber air-inlet port is provided and can be opened respectively, corresponding to the second air pre-heating chambers of the two air pre-heating chambers, on a bottom peripheral wall of the third sleeve, and one combustion-chamber fuel-inlet port is opened respectively, corresponding to the second fuel pre-heating chambers of the two fuel pre-heating chambers on the bottom peripheral wall of the third sleeve;
wherein one air inlet hole is respectively opened corresponding to the first air pre-heating chambers of the two air pre-heating chambers, on the lower sealing plate, one fuel inlet hole is respectively opened, corresponding to the first fuel pre-heating chambers of the two fuel pre-heating chambers, on the lower sealing plate; and
wherein air sequentially passes through the first air pre-heating chambers, the second air pre-heating chambers, and the combustion-chamber air-inlet ports from the air inlet holes to enter the combustion chamber, and a fuel sequentially passes through the first fuel pre-heating chambers, the second fuel pre-heating chambers, and the combustion-chamber fuel-inlet ports from fuel inlet holes to enter the combustion chamber and is mixed with air for combustion, and waste gas after combustion passes through the top-layer loop channel and the vent channel to be eventually discharged outside the combustor outer drum body from the main vent hole.

2. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the air passes through the air inlet holes to enter the first air pre-heating chambers from bottom to top, enters the second air pre-heating chambers from top to bottom, enters the combustion chamber from bottom to top, and enters the vent channel from top to bottom; and the fuel enters the first fuel pre-heating chambers from bottom to top from the fuel inlet holes, enters the second fuel pre-heating chambers from top to bottom, enters the combustion chamber from bottom to top, and enters the vent channel from top to bottom.

3. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the combustion-chamber air-inlet ports and the combustion-chamber fuel-inlet ports are both opened in a tangential direction on a same peripheral line of a bottom peripheral wall of the third sleeve, and the air and fuel enter the combustion chamber in a tangential manner, being mixed in the combustion chamber.

4. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 2 , wherein positions at which the combustion-chamber air-inlet ports and the air inlet holes are located on one diameter line positions at which the combustion-chamber fuel-inlet ports and the fuel inlet holes are opened are located on another diameter line, and the two diameter lines intersect each other.

5. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 1 , wherein diameters of the air inlet holes and the fuel inlet holes are less than a gap between the second sleeve and first sleeve.

6. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first fuel pre-heating chambers and the second fuel pre-heating chambers of the fuel pre-heating chambers are filled with sintered porous material.

7. The miniature liquid combustor as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a metal catalyst grid is disposed in a middle of the combustion chamber, an igniter is placed laterally above the metal catalyst grid, and a lead of the igniter passes through the upper sealing plate to be connected to an external high-voltage power source, and a Cu—NI, Pt—Ni or Pt—Cu catalyst is coated on the surface of the metal catalyst grid.

8. A method comprising the following steps:
providing a miniature liquid combustor according to claim 1 ;
introducing a liquid hydrocarbon fuel and air introduced into the combustion chamber and are ignited by an igniter to combust stably above a metal catalyst grid, combustion flames first heat the third sleeve, and the heated third sleeve gradually radiates thermal energy to the first fuel pre-heating chamber, the second fuel pre-heating chamber, the first air pre-heating chamber, and the second air pre-heating chamber, until the entire miniature liquid combustor is heated; and
the air that enters the air pre-heating chambers and the fuel that enters the fuel pre-heating chambers are continuously pre-heated twice respectively before entering the combustion chamber.

9. The combustion method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein a process of the double pre-heating includes:
the liquid hydrocarbon fuel enters a first fuel pre-heating chambers from bottom to top from the fuel inlet holes to be heated for the first time, and is crushed for a first time under a crushing effect of the porous material in the first fuel pre-heating chambers to form heated liquid drops;
liquid hydrocarbon fuel enters a second fuel pre-heating chamber from top to bottom to be heated for the second time, the porous material in the second fuel pre-heating chamber he

Assignees

• Univ South China Tech

Inventors

• Gan Yunhua
• Jiang Zhengwei

Classifications

• F23D11/443 Primary

  heated by the main burner flame · CPC title

• F23D11/40

  Mixing tubes; Burner heads · CPC title

• F23D11/36

  Details · CPC title

• F23D2900/21

  Burners specially adapted for a particular use · CPC title

• F23D11/406

  Flame stabilising means, e.g. flame holders · CPC title