Low-Emission Waste-to-Energy Method of Liquid Fuel Combustion with a Mixture of Superheated Steam and Carbon Dioxide

Waste-to-energy approaches, aimed at using cheap energy carriers (oil production and refining waste, etc.), require the creation of new technologies with high energy efficiency and low emissions. One of the environmentally friendly methods is a superheated steam injection (SIM) into the combustion zone. At the same time, trends in CO₂ reduction and recycling make carbon dioxide more attractive to use together with, or instead of, steam. This paper experimentally investigated the possibility of upgrading SIM to steam and the carbon dioxide injection method (SCIM) or the carbon dioxide injection method (CIM), where superheated steam and carbon dioxide are supplied together or completely replaced by CO₂. In the example of diesel fuel, the characteristics of the combustion of liquid hydrocarbons in the presence of a mixture of superheated steam with CO₂ in a spray burner are obtained and compared. It shows that a high completeness of fuel combustion is observed for all the studied modes. The analysis of combustion product composition demonstrates that when replacing the superheated steam with carbon dioxide, the levels of CO and NO_x in the combustion products increase by 25%. All the investigated regimes comply with the EN:267 standard. The results obtained show that it is possible to realize SCIM and CIM approaches for waste-to-energy with the use of CO₂.