Evaporation and mixing promotion and combustion of liquid fuel by air bubble blowing

In an inverse conception of spray combustion, we attempted to increase the air-fuel contact area and promote evaporation and mixing by blowing air bubbles into liquid methanol. The ignition of the mixture formed in this way showed that a premixed flame could be stabilized over the surface of a foam layer, although the flame was in turbulent conditions and rather heterogeneous owing to small droplets flying away from the surface. The mixture was rich on the whole because of the high volatility of methanol. However, by setting a flame holder in the combustion tube and adjusting the distance between the holder and the foam layer surface, it became possible to control the mixture equivalence ratio and carry out lean side combustion.