Commercial-scale demonstration of pollutant emission reduction and energy saving for industrial boilers by employing water/oil emulsified fuel

The water/oil emulsified fuel consists of base fuel oil and water doped with or without a trace content of surface active agents. In this study, the water/oil emulsified fuel was successfully produced without usage of any surface active agents. An experimental study has been implemented in an industrial steam boiler to investigate the combustion characteristics of this emulsified fuel by analyzing the exhaust gas emissions and the thermal efficiency of the boiler. The experiment demonstrated that the water/oil emulsified fuel is effective for NOx and soot emission suppression as well as thermal efficiency improvement. These effects were also demonstrated for the commercially operated water heating boiler.

► We successfully produced the water emulsified fuel without surface active agents.
► The NOx and dust emissions can be reduced by using the water emulsified fuel.
► The excess air ratio can be reduced for the water emulsified fuel.
► Lowering the excess air ratio will increase thermal efficiency of boiler.
► We demonstrated that 10% of energy saving achieved by using water emulsified fuel.