GB1247406A - Wick burner - Google Patents

Abstract

1,247,406. Wick burner; hot water boiler. BRITISH PETROLEUM CO. Ltd. 19 March, 1970 [28 April, 1969], No. 21541/69. Headings F4A and F4T. A wick 10 for use in a wick burner has an evaporator 11 in the form of a horizontal circular disc of crushed metal foam pierced by a hexagonal pattern of air holes 14, through which air passes from below to burn liquid fuel in a combustion zone adjacent to the upper surface, the liquid fuel being held by surface tension in the evaporator until evaporated by heat from the combustion zone, fuel then flowing within the evaporator from a fuel bath to replenish fuel burnt. In other embodiments (Figs. 3, 4 and 5, not shown) downwardly depending feeders (12) supply liquid fuel to the evaporator from a fuel bath 13, the wick of Fig. 3 being made of metal foam, that of Fig. 4 being made of fibrous ceramic material carried on a support member and that of Fig. 5 having an evaporator of metal foam and a feeder of ceramic fibre. Another embodiment (Fig. 6, not shown) comprises two rectangular sheets of metal foam inclined at angles of 45 degrees to the horizontal and joined along a common boundary (21). Feeders 12a and 12b depend from the upper edges of the sheets. Fig. 8 embodies a wick 11 depicted in Fig. 6 (not shown) in a fuel bath 13 in a combustion chamber 30 of a domestic central heating appliance which incorporates a blower 33 for the air supply 31, a heat exchanger 37 and a thermostatically controlled fuel valve 34.