International Research Journal of Education and Technology

The use of biomass stove is widespread in the rural communities of developing countries. It is important to improve the efficiency of this stove in order to reduce the global warming contribution. Although combustion offers many benefits to the human, it also has a downside which is producing pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon monoxide (CO).  The use of metal foam made from aluminium and cast iron in combustion has proved that the reduction of NO_x and CO emissions can be achieved through its thermal and physical properties. The complex metal foam can also distribute heat of combustion into large area in combustion chamber and enhance the temperature at its region. Generally, the porous medium (PM) configurations used have created the phenomenon of radiative energy feed-back and species backflow which influence the NO_x and CO emissions and temperature profiles. From the comparison analysis of combustor without porous medium and with porous medium, it is found that the NO_x and CO emissions can be reduced approximately 59% and 21% respectively with the presence of porous medium.

Keywords: composite metal foam, biomass, particulate matter, combustion.