Performance, Gaseous and Particle Emissions from a Residential Pellet Stove

The objectives of this chapter are to present experimental results on performance, gaseous and particle emissions obtained from a modern bottom feed pellet stove of 2.5 kW output in part load heat and 5 kW output in nominal heat. Two experiments in part load and four experiments in nominal load output were conducted in a stove manufacturing plant in the southern part of Belgium. The particle emissions measurements are mass concentrations of PM1 and PM2.5, number concentrations and their particle size distributions. Particle emission measurements were conducted continuously from a partial flow dilution tunnel using an Electrical Low Pressure Impactor Plus (ELPI+). The CO emissions were analyzed continuously from the flue gas by a Siemens Ultramat 6 gas analyzer, CO2 and O2 concentrations were measured continuously using a Horiba PG-250 gas analyzer. A performance analysis in terms of combustion efficiency together with different losses of the pellet stove is also discussed. The results show that PM1 and PM2.5 concentrations obtained from the combustion phase of the nominal load experiments varied from 43.3 to 276 mg/Nm3 and 66 to 36 mg/Nm3 respectively, while the particle number concentrations varied from 1.4 × 107 to 8.8 × 107 particles/cm3. The CO emissions obtained from the main combustion phase of the nominal load heat varied output from 50 to 145 mg/Nm3.