Corrosion testing of alloys for biomass cookstove combustors
Date
2017
Authors
Banta, Kelly, author
Marchese, Anthony, advisor
Mizia, John, committee member
Jathar, Shantanu, committee member
Sambur, Justin, committee member
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Abstract
Worldwide, over 3 billion people use biomass for cooking and heating. Many people cook over 3-stone fires or inefficient and highly polluting traditional cookstoves, presenting a large human health risk and significant climate impacts. One solution to this is the development of improved cookstoves, which can alleviate this burden by being more efficient and cleaner-burning. To be effective in their purpose, improved cookstoves must be long-lasting. Achieving longevity is challenging from a material corrosion perspective, particularly in the case of metallic combustors, because cookstove combustors must operate at high temperatures (> 600 deg. C) in environments with corrosive species released from biomass combustion. A key part of this challenge is cost, since materials must be inexpensive to permit widespread adoption in the developing world; however, corrosion resistant materials are typically costlier. In this work, screening protocols for corrosion testing of cookstove combustor materials were developed and shown to be effective methods for accelerated corrosion testing, and a number of alloys were evaluated for corrosion performance. Additionally, a FeCrSi alloy was identified as a potentially low-cost material with high corrosion resistance in cookstove applications. This alloy is currently being patented.
Description
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Subject
combustion
corrosion
stainless steel
cookstove
biomass
oxidation