Work

Flame stabilization and combustion performance of swirl-stabilized shower burners under LPG-to-CNG substitution: CFD and experimental analysis

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Ceramic kilns in Southeast Asia remain heavily dependent on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a carbon-intensive fuel that often produces unstable combustion in shower-type burners. This study provides a novel contribution by delivering a kiln-scale experimental dataset and a validated CFD framework specifically developed to evaluate LPG-to-CNG substitution in these industrial burners—an area sparsely addressed in existing literature. Simulations, validated against measured velocity and temperature fields with errors below 7 %, show that direct CNG substitution improves premixing and increases turbulence intensity, resulting in more compact and stable flames. Incorporating swirl yields the most significant enhancement, generating turbulence levels of 180–193 %, peak temperatures of 1450–1523 K, combustion efficiencies above 95 %, and CO emissions as low as 291 ppm, while maintaining NO x within 26–98 ppm. An economic assessment further demonstrates clear industrial benefits, with annual fuel savings of approximately 505 USD and a payback period of 2.65 years. Overall, this integrated CFD–experimental investigation establishes swirl-assisted CNG combustion as an effective and practically viable retrofit strategy for improving stability, efficiency, and emissions performance in ceramic kiln burners.

Source: Results in Engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2025.108519

Authors: Arthit Sangsopha, Anirut Matthujak, Thanarath Sriveerakul, Chakrit Pongarm, Sutthisak Phongthanapanich

Institutions: Ratchathani University, Ubon Ratchathani University, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok

Language: English

Topic: Combustion and flame dynamics

Subfield: Computational Mechanics

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Affordable and clean energy, Climate action, Responsible consumption and production, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,940