Explosion characteristics of a pyrolysis biofuel derived from rice husk

Fast pyrolysis biofuel is considered as one of the promising alternative fuels for future transportation. The authors’ research group has improved a pyrolysis biofuel production method for obtaining a biofuel from rice husk. Preliminary research published in Fuel reveals that it has the potential of being used as a gasoline blending component. Before this biofuel can be widely used in real combustors or engines at a large scale, its explosion characteristics should be investigated for the safety consideration during production, transport and storage. This paper quantitatively evaluates explosion pressure, deflagration index, maximum pressure rise rate and combustion duration of this biofuel in the constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). At the same time, the effects of initial pressure, initial temperature and equivalence ratio on explosion characteristics of this biofuel was also qualitatively analyzed. Linear relationships between explosion pressure, deflagration index, maximum pressure rise rate and combustion duration versus initial pressure and explosion pressure versus initial temperature are given. Results show that explosion pressure is a linear relationship with the initial temperature. However, deflagration index, maximum pressure rise rate and combustion duration are insensitive to the temperature variation.