combustion plateform

The combustion facility of the EMPP research department brings together the equipment and skills of three laboratories: the LERMAB, the LEMTA and the LRGP. Its objective is to study combustion both for installations aimed at thermally enhancing this phenomenon (domestic installations, boilers, engines, burners…) and during accidental events (fires, explosions…). The approaches developed are complementary and tend to improve the operation of devices/processes while controlling risks and reducing their environmental impact.

Scientific Operation “Fires”

"Chemical Valorization, Energy and Processes” scientific team

CITHERE and PERSEVAL scientific teams

Kinetics
Combustion
Analytical method
Explosion

All the experimental devices present at the LRGP allow to carry out:

The study of the structure of a flat laminar premixed flame stabilized on a low-pressure burner. It is also possible to measure adiabatic laminar flame velocities at atmospheric pressure. The device consists of a burner, inserted in a heated envelope (Heat Flux burner).
Experiments in a self-agitated gas jet reactor. This homogeneous reactor at constant pressure (1-10 bar) and temperature (500-1000 K) can be considered as an ideal perfectly stirred reactor. For these devices, the concentration profiles of the stable species are obtained by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.
Measurements of self-ignition times using a shock wave tube.
Research on the thermal valorization of biomass (pyrolysis, gasification) (see link ‘biomass’).
Studies on dust ignition and explosion (see link ‘process safety’).

Self-Agitated Gas Jet Reactor- LRGP

Premixed laminar flame – LRGP

Shock wave tube – LRGP

Basket kiln for the study of self-heating of solid storage – LRGP

Thermal metrology
Numerical simulation for fires
Radiation

Fire research at LEMTA is carried out by a team combining fire and heat radiation expertise. It concerns fire safety engineering, prevention and risks. Current studies aim at understanding the mechanisms of ignition, propagation and extinction of fires.

The PROMETHEI and ATHENAI platforms thus enable the production of experimental databases, with freely accessible results on natural fires. These experiments are also combined with modeling work to simulate the progress of a flame front over time.

On confined fires, the work carried out integrates the mechanisms of ignition, propagation between premises (application in the field of buildings and transport) and suppression.

On the fire-fighting side, numerous cooperative projects are underway with the fire department (SDIS 54 and the Paris Fire Brigade). The work carried out on this point goes as far as modelling the evacuation of people.

Wood sample subjected to a heat flow given by the calorimeter cone – LEMTA

Experimentation on wildfire. Experiment on wood curling – LEMTA

Boilers
Environmental impact
Gasification
Pyrolysis

LERMAB’s facilities enable a chain approach to the energy recovery of biomass and waste, from the conditioning and characterization of fuels to the environmental impact of the processes as a whole. In particular, a set of devices of different scales (from a few mg to more than 50 kg/h) is used to study pyrolysis, gasification and combustion. This ensemble constitutes the ERBE platform, which is labeled by LUE. A wide range of analytical equipment allows to carry out complete balances on all devices and thus to meet scientific and industrial needs, whether in terms of characterization of operation, development of solutions, process improvement or more fundamental research. In addition, the laboratory has several semi-industrial facilities and standardized test platforms for different types of biomass and/or waste combustion devices.