THE IMPACT OF DISSOCIATION ON THE FLAME TEMPERATURE IN BIOMASS COMBUSTION

This paper presents the reader with a study, identifying to what extent the flame temperature is influenced by dissociation. An iterative macro is programmed in Excel. This method, although developed to investigate the combustion of Miscanthus, can be equally applied to
any hydrocarbon fuel. The software developed in this study allows the operator to investigate the combustion of the fuel under of a variety of air to fuel ratios to determine the effect of that on the flame temperature and the products of combustion. The accuracy of this method can be
assured by limiting the error tolerated in the iterative process. Typically the errors are governed by a value of 0.1ºC but can be varied at wish and hence accelerating or decelerating the convergence of the solution.
The influence of dissociation shows a considerable impact on the flame temperature for different amounts of excess air used. The results show it is continuously decreased with
increase of excess air until it becomes more or less insignificant. It can be observed that the difference in the adiabatic temperature and the dissociated temperature becomes less significant with an increase of excess air.