Efficiency of Natural Gas Combustion at a Small Power Facility*

With the development of technology and population growth, the consumption of energy resources on our planet is increasing. The increasing rate of resource consumption and their irrational use lead to the rapid depletion of fossil fuels. In this regard, a comprehensive study of the efficien-cy of using natural gas at small power facilities in water heating boilers GKS-Dynatherm-3200 and GKS-Dynatherm-1100 was carried out. Industrial and operational tests were fulfilled, heat losses during operation of the equipment and the completeness of natural gas combustion were determined, the composition of the fuel burned was investigated, the concentration, size and shape of solid particles in flue gases were determined using a Zeiss SIGMA VP electron scanning microscope. The test results showed that the burner devices of hot water boilers provide the preparation of a high-quality air-fuel mixture, which makes it possible to organize the combustion process with a minimal excess of air. It was found out that with an increase in the proportion of oxygen in the combustion chamber of the GKS-Dynatherm-1100 boiler to 3.7–5.35 %, an increase in NO_x and CO emissions is observed. Despite the high thermal performance, even during the combustion of natural gas in the combustion devices of boiler units, fuel carbon is released in the form of soot. When studying the content of solid particles in exhaust flue gases, it was found that particles with a size from 1 to 5 microns predominate. At the same time, more than 95 % of the particles have a shape close to spherical. Particles of 20 microns or more in the exhaust gases are much smaller, however, their total mass dominates the gross emissions of particulate matter. The emission of particulate matter during operation of the GKS-Dynatherm-3200 water heating boiler with a load of 1.73 MW was 0.17 mg/MJ. During the conducted industrial and operational tests, it was found that the boiler house equipment has high energy-ecological performance and has potential for further improvement.

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