Improvement of the combustion model for a biomass stove: Validation with experimental measurements

In this work, two enhanced combustion models are used to study the overall performance of the Portable Patsari (PP) biomass stove. The 6R and 10R chemical mechanisms feature six and ten reactions, respectively, along with two values of the excess air ratio ( λ = 2 and 3). The main goal is to validate both models using experimental measurements by comparing key variables. The ANSYS Fluent software was used to build the following numerical configuration to simulate transport phenomena in the stove. The results showed that a better and more accurate assessment for the thermal and combustion performance was achieved by implementing 10R model than the 6R one. In general, there is good agreement between experimental measurements and simulations with λ = 3 . Also no significant differences in global efficiency and in most mass flow rates (MFR) were reported. The average contribution of the stove for 6R_L2 and 10R_L2 was found to be 0.63 ± 0.04 kgCO 2 e/kg (5%, p = 0.41) and 0.54 ± 0.05 kgCO 2 e/kg (11%, p = 0.11), respectively. This means that both models correctly predicted CO 2 e emissions. Finally, the insights constitute a substantial advance in the understanding of the combustion process in biomass plancha-type stoves. Given that the one-reaction combustion model is still in use, the results provide a more comprehensive study based on two upgraded combustion models.