Abstract

This paper examines rich and ultrarich combustion of methanol and ethanol in a porous media reactor with an external heat exchanger to vaporize liquid fuels and recover combustion energy. Temperature, velocities, and chemical products of the combustion waves were recorded experimentally at a range of equivalence ratios from phi = 1.6 to 8.2 and oxygen content in the oxidizer from 10 to 23%. Experimental results show that the reactor can handle ultrarich combustion up to an equivalence ratio of 8.2 and obtained maximum conversion of hydrogen of 43 and 30% for methanol and ethanol, respectively. A high oxygen content in the oxidizer results in higher hydrogen and carbon monoxide concentrations. Conclusions show that the reactor for filtration combustion can be used to reform liquid fuels into hydrogen and syngas.