Detonation Properties of Ethylene / Methane Blended Fuels

Biomass gas fuels are one of the most promising alternative fuels for combustion engines. As well as methane, ethylene can be produced from agricultural products and wastes through fermentation [1, 2]. Ethylene has higher deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) possibilities and substantially smaller detonation cell sizes. Higher thermal efficiencies can, therefore, be achieved when detonation engines are fueled with biomass gases containing ethylene. Deeper understanding of detonation properties for blended fuels would be needed for stable operation of detonation engines. Some researchers including one co-worker have studied detonation properties of blended fuels, such as DDT distance, propagation velocity and cell sizes [3-5]. In the present study, detonation properties of ethylene/methane blended fuels were experimentally examined using a detonation tube as a first step to utilizing biomass gas fuels.