Development of novel porous radiant burners for LPG cooking applications

In this paper, the development and performance tests of a novel porous radiant burner (PRB) used for LPG domestic cooking application are presented. The thermal efficiency of the burner was measured using the water boiling test described in BIS: 4246:2002. In order to optimize the porosity of the burner, burners having different porosities viz, 80%, 85% and 90% were tested at different equivalence ratios and wattages. The reported maximum efficiency is about 75% which is 10% higher than that of the maximum thermal efficiency of the conventional LPG domestic cooking stoves (metallic) available in the Indian market. The measured CO and NOx emissions are in the range of 10–160 mg/m3 and 0–0.9 mg/m3, while the respective values of the conventional LPG domestic cooking stoves are in the range of 250–650 mg/m3 and 4–7 mg/m3. Within the range of equivalence ratios (0.5–0.7) and wattages (1.3 –1.7 kW) tested, the PRB showed a steady operation without any flash back with the thermal efficiencies well above 72%.