In situ spectroscopic monitoring of straight vegetable oil combustion properties (sunflower and soybean oils)

Abstract

Combustion characteristics of straight vegetable oils (SVO) derived from sunflower and soybean were investigated by means of spectroscopic methods. Two - dimensional (2D) distributions of flame temperature were obtained with a thermal video camera. The experimental result indicates that the flame temperatures ranged from 400 to 1,400°C for both SVOs. 2D distributions of NO emission intensity were visualized for these species by spectroscopic imaging. The presence of CO2 and CO from sunflower and soybean oil combustion flames has been observed using FT-IR, and CO2 has been also visualized using infrared camera. It has seen that temperature distribution of sunflower oil is higher than soybean oil and NO emission of sunflower oil is more significant than soybean oil due to the higher temperature of sunflower oil combustion flames as well. CO2 and CO of sunflower oil are higher than soybean oil not only due to the higher temperature of sunflower oil, but we predicted it due to the different component of fatty acid content of both oils. However, since these oils are generated from plant, it could be considered as zero carbon balance.