A Comparative Study of Thermal, Luminous, and Infrared Radiation Characteristics of Natural gas Flame in the Presence of Alkali, Alkali-Earth, and Transition Metallic Solution Additives

Abstract

Experiments were performed to find out the effect of alkali, alkali-earth, and transition metallic additives on thermal, luminous, IR, and total radiative properties of natural gas flame. A total of 25 mL of 0.5 M alkali salts of NaNO3 and KNO3, alkali-earth salts of Ca(NO3)2, Ba(NO3)2, and Sr(NO3)2 and transition nitrate salts of Cu(NO3)2 and Mn(NO3)2 (Merck company) were prepared, and flame tests were done on each solution by using a Bunsen burner with the equivalence ratio of 1.05, which is close to the condition of stoichiometric air–fuel mixing. The optical characteristics of flame were measured in visible and infrared radiation (IR) spectrums by a TES-1332A luminance meter, BOMEM FTIR, and IR flame photography technique. Also, the total radiation was gauged by a HFP01 sensor. The results indicated that, in general, due to the increased rate of nucleation of intermediate soot particles, the flame in the presence of alkali metal additives has higher total, luminous, and IR radiation than in the presence of other metal additives. Also, the metallic additives do not significantly change the flame temperature. The results also revealed that although all metallic additives enhance the luminous radiation of flame, which is due to chemiluminescence phenomenon or atomic emission, luminous radiation of metal additives is negligible in comparison with their radiation in IR wavelengths. Furthermore, the results show that the boiling temperature of metallic salt solutions has a greater impact on flame luminosity than their ionization energy does.