The effect of adding ethanol on the ignition properties of fast pyrolysis bio oils

In this paper, the ignition behaviour of droplets composed by crude FPBO and FPBO/EtOH blends at normal pressure is discussed. The tests were carried out, in a closed single droplet combustion chamber with optical accesses, on droplets of diameter in the range 0.8 mm-1.4 mm. FPBO/EtOH blends with percentage of alcohol varying between 5 % v/v and 50 % v/v were tested. To analyse the effectiveness of the addition of ethanol on the ignition properties of FPBOs, the study was also carried out on the crude FPBO used to form the blends. 1D modelling of the evaporation and ignition of droplets of crude FPBO and blends FPBO/EtOH is also discussed. The comparison of numerical and experimental results shows that the model is able to capture the main features of the heating phase of the complex fuels forming the droplets.