Considering the imperative reduction in CO₂ emissions, both from household heating and hot water producing facilities, one of the mainstream directions is to reduce hydrocarbons in combustibles by replacing them with hydrogen. The authors analyze condensing boilers operating when hydrogen is mixed with standard gaseous fuel (CH₄). The hydrogen (H₂) volumetric participation in the mixture is considered to vary in the range of 0 to 20%. The operation of the condensing boilers will be numerically modeled by computational programs and prior validated by experimental studies concluded in a European Certified Laboratory. The study concluded that an increase in the combustible flow with 16% will compensate the maximum H₂ concentration situation with no other implications on the boiler’s thermal efficiency, together with a decrease in CO₂ emissions by approximately 7%. By assuming 0.9 (to/year/boiler), the value of CO₂ emissions reduction for the condensing boiler determined in the paper, and extrapolating it for the estimated number of boilers to be sold for the period 2019–2024, a 254,700-ton CO₂/year reduction resulted.

Following the international trend of using hydrogen as combustible in many industry branches, this paper investigates the impact of mixing methane gas with 23% hydrogen (G222) on condensing boilers’ operation. After modeling and testing several boilers with heat exchange surface different designs, the authors gathered enough information to introduce a new concept, namely High-Performance Condensing Boiler (HPCB). All the boilers that fit into this approach have the same operational parameters at nominal heat load, including the CO2 concentrations in flue gases. After testing a flattened pipes condensing boiler, a CO2 emission reduction coefficient of 1.1 was determined, when converting from methane gas to G222 as combustible. Thus, by inserting into the national grid a G222 mixture, an important reduction in greenhouse gases can be achieved. For a 28 kW condensing boiler the annual reduction in CO2 emissions averages 1.26 tons, value which was experimentally obtained and is consistent with the theoretical evaluation.

For technical applications, a physical model capable of predicting the particle evolution in the burning process along its trajectory through the furnace is very useful. There are two major demands: all the thermo-dynamic processes that describe the particle burning process must be accounted and the model must be written in such equation terms to allow the intervention for parameter settings and particle definition. The computations were performed for the following parameters: furnace average temperature between 700 and 1200 °C, size of the sawdust particle from 4 to 6 mm and fix carbon ignition between 500 and 900 °C. The values obtained for the characteristic parameters of the burning process ranged from 30 to 60 [kg/(h·m³)] for the gravimetrical burning speed W_Gh and from 150 to 280 [kW/m³] for the volumetric thermal load of the furnace Q_V. The main conclusion was that the calculus results are in good agreement with the experimental data from the pilot installations and the real-case measurements in the sawdust working boiler furnaces or pre-burning chambers. Another very important conclusion is that the process speed variation, when the furnace temperature changes, confirms the thermo-kinetic predictions, namely that the burning process speed decreases when the furnace temperature increases.

The conical tunnel burner is an improvement of the cylindrical tunnel burner because, by maintaining all its advantages by means of burning intensification, it may also insure the flame stabilization in a wide range of regulation with considerable diminished pressure losses. Technical applications for the conical furnace burner can vary due to the limited dimensions required by the system, as well as the important thermal loads, and also because of the burning stability characteristic that spreads over an important range of regulation. The low costs required by the burner, generated mainly by its simple construction, also raise the interest for this technical solution. A physical model is proposed for the ignition and flame front stabilization. The flame front stabilization contains different steps from the ignition moment to final flame front stabilization, with specific flame front geometries and specific locations along the burner axis. The installation realised by the authors allowed the experimental study of the burning process in conical furnaces, in order to determine the temperature fields and the flame profiles. The physical model developed for this new type of application and the experimental data sets obtained (along with their interpretation) make the subject of this paper.