Kinetic and fluid dynamics modeling of methane/hydrogen jet flames in diluted coflow

MILD combustion is a recent development in the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels which promises high efficiencies and low NO_x emissions. In this paper we analyze the mathematical and numerical modeling of a Jet in Hot Coflow (JHC) burner, which is designed to emulate a moderate and intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion regime [1]. This paper initially discusses the effects of several modeling strategies on the prediction of the JHC flame structure using the CFD code FLUENT 6.3.26. Effects of various turbulence models and their boundary conditions have been studied. Moreover, the detailed kinetic mechanism adopted in the CFD simulations is successfully validated in the conditions of interest using recent literature data [2] on the effect of nitrogen dilution on the flame speeds of several CH₄/H₂/air lean mixtures. One of the aims of this paper is also to describe a methodology for computing pollutant formation in steady turbulent flows to verify its applicability to the MILD combustion regime. CFD results are post-processed for calculating the NO_x using a numerical tool called Kinetic Post Processor (KPP). The modeling results agree with the experimental results [1] and support the proposed approach as a useful tool for optimizing the design of new burners also in the MILD combustion regime.     

Study on nonpremixed methane/air combustion from flame structure and NOX emission aspect for different burner head structures

In the present study, the air turbulator, which is a part of a nonpremixed burner, is investigated numerically in terms of its effects on the diffusion methane flame structure and NO_X emissions. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code was used for the numerical analysis. At first, four experiments were conducted using natural gas fuel. In the experimental studies, the excess air ratio was taken constant as 1.2, while the fuel consumption rate was changed between 22 and 51 Nm³/h. After the experimental studies, the CFD studies were carried out. Pure methane was taken as fuel for the simulations. The nonpremixed combustion model with the steady laminar flamelet model (SFM) approach was used in the combustion analyses. Methane‐air extinction mechanism with 17 species and 58 reactions was used for the simulations. The results obtained from the CFD studies were confronted with the measurements of the flue gas emissions in the experimental studies. Then, a modified burner head was analysed numerically for the different air turbulator blade numbers and angles. The CFD results show that increasing the air turbulator blade number and angle causes the thermal NO emissions to be reduced in the flue gas by making the flame in the combustion chamber more uniform than the original case. This new flame structure provides better mixing of the fuel and combustion air. Thus, the diffusion flame structure in the combustion chamber takes the form of the partially premixed flame structure. The maximum reduction in the thermal NO emissions in the flue gas is achieved at 38% according to the original case.     

Numerical and experimental analysis of NO emissions from a lab-scale burner fed with hydrogen-enriched fuels and operating in MILD combustion

An experimental and computational investigation of a lab-scale burner, which can operate in both flame and MILD combustion conditions and is fed with methane and a methane/hydrogen mixture (hydrogen content of 60% by vol.), is carried out. The modelling results indicate the need of a proper turbulence/chemistry interaction treatment and rather detailed kinetic mechanisms to capture MILD combustion features, especially in presence of hydrogen. Despite these difficulties, Computational Fluid Dynamics results to be very useful, as for instance it allows evaluating the internal recirculation degree in the burner, a parameter which is otherwise difficult to be determined. Moreover the model helps interpreting experimental evidences: for instance the modelling results indicate that in presence of hydrogen the NNH and N₂O intermediate routes are the dominant formation pathways for the MILD combustion conditions investigated.     

Effect of the combustion model and kinetic mechanism on the MILD combustion in an industrial burner fed with hydrogen enriched fuels

A numerical and experimental investigation of a burner operating in MILD combustion regime and fed with methane and methane-hydrogen mixtures (with hydrogen content up to 20% by wt.) is presented. Numerical simulations are performed with two different combustion models, i.e. the ED/FR and EDC models, and three kinetic mechanisms, i.e. global, DRM-19 and GRI-3.0. Moreover, the influence of molecular diffusion on the predictions is assessed. Results evidence the need of a detailed chemistry approach, especially with H₂, to capture the volumetric features of MILD combustion. The inclusion of molecular diffusion influences the prediction of H₂ distribution; however, the effects on the temperature field and on the major species are negligible for the present MILD combustion system. A simple NO formation mechanism based on the thermal and prompt routes is found to provide NO emissions in relatively good agreement with experimental observations only when applied on temperature fields obtained with the EDC model and detailed chemistry.     

Mechanism analysis on the pulverized coal combustion flame stability and NOx emission in a swirl burner with deep air staging

Low NOx burner and air staged combustion are widely applied to control NOx emission in coal-fired power plants. The gas-solid two-phase flow, pulverized coal combustion and NOx emission characteristics of a single low NOx swirl burner in an existing coal-fired boiler was numerically simulated to analyze the mechanisms of flame stability and in-flame NOx reduction. And the detailed NOx formation and reduction model under fuel rich conditions was employed to optimize NOx emissions for the low NOx burner with air staged combustion of different burner stoichiometric ratios. The results show that the specially-designed swirl burner structures including the pulverized coal concentrator, flame stabilizing ring and baffle plate create an ignition region of high gas temperature, proper oxygen concentration and high pulverized coal concentration near the annular recirculation zone at the burner outlet for flame stability. At the same time, the annular recirculation zone is generated between the primary and secondary air jets to promote the rapid ignition and combustion of pulverized coal particles to consume oxygen, and then a reducing region is formed as fuel-rich environment to contribute to in-flame NO_X reduction. Moreover, the NOx concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber is greatly reduced when the deep air staged combustion with the burner stoichiometric ratio of 0.75 is adopted, and the CO concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber can be maintained simultaneously at a low level through the over-fired air injection of high velocity to enhance the mixing of the fresh air with the flue gas, which can provide the optimal solution for lower NOx emission in the existing coal-fired boilers.     

MILD combustion for hydrogen and syngas at elevated pressures

As gas recirculation constitutes a fundamental condition for the realization of MILD combustion, it is necessary to determine gas recirculation ratio before designing MILD combustor. MILD combustion model with gas recir- culation was used in this simulation work to evaluate the effect of fuel type and pressure on threshold gas recir- culation ratio of MILD mode. Ignition delay time is also an important design parameter for gas turbine combustor, this parameter is kinetically studied to analyze the effect of pressure on MILD mixture ignition. Threshold gas re- circulation ratio of hydrogen MILD combustion changes slightly and is nearly equal to that of 10 MJ/Nm3 syngas in the pressure range of 1-19 atm, under the conditions of 298 K fresh reactant temperature and 1373 K exhaust gas temperature, indicating that MILD regime is fuel flexible. Ignition delay calculation results show that pres- sure has a negative effect on ignition delay time of 10 MJ/Nm3 syngas MILD mixture, because OH mole fraction in MILD mixture drops down as pressure increases, resulting in the delay of the oxidation process.     

MILD combustion of hydrogenated biogas under several operating conditions in an opposed jet configuration

MILD combustion of biogas takes its importance firstly from the combustion process that diminishes significantly fuel consumption and reduces emissions and secondly from the use of biogas which is a renewable fuel. In this paper, the influence of several operating conditions (namely biogas composition, hydrogen enrichment and oxidizer dilution) is studied on flame structure and emissions. The investigation is conducted in MILD regime with a special focus on chemical effects of CO₂ in the oxidizer. Opposed jet diffusion combustion configuration is adopted. The combustion kinetics is described by the Gri 3.0 mechanism and the Chemkin code is used to solve the problem.It is found that oxygen reduction has a significant effect on flame temperature and emissions while less sensitivity corresponds to hydrogen enrichment in MILD combustion regime. Temperature and species are considerably reduced by oxygen decrease in the oxidizer and augmented by hydrogen addition to the fuel. The maximum values of temperature and species are not influenced by the composition of the biogas in MILD regime. Blending biogas with hydrogen can be used to sustain MILD combustion at very low oxygen concentration in the fuel.In MILD combustion regime, the chemical effect of CO₂ in the oxidizer stream reduces considerably the flame temperature and species production, except CO which is enhanced. For high amounts of CO₂ in the oxidizer, the chemical effect of CO₂ becomes negligible.     

天然气柔和燃烧锅炉结构参数影响模拟研究

在天然气锅炉中引入柔和燃烧技术将大大降低NOx排放,高速未燃气卷吸高温烟气回流并与之快速掺混再燃烧是柔和燃烧的重要特征,因此,开展天然气锅炉关键结构参数优化设计以组织流场形成柔和燃烧所需的高温低氧反应气氛非常必要。基于天然气锅炉的工况特征,设计了热负荷15kW的模型燃烧室,采用数值模拟手段详细研究了燃烧室高度、喷嘴孔径、喷嘴相对位置及烟气出口尺寸对燃烧室流场、组分场及关键参数——烟气回流比的影响规律,并最终确定了燃烧室结构优选方案,对天然气锅炉柔和燃烧机设计提供理论基础数据。     

Multi-environment PDF modeling for non-catalytic partial oxidation process under MILD oxy-combustion condition

The multi-environment probability density function approach has been applied to numerically investigate the Moderate or Intense Low-Oxygen (MILD) oxy-combustion processes encountered in the non-catalytic partial oxidation (POX) gasifier. The multi-environment PDF approach has the form of a conventional Eulerian scheme and retains the desirable property of a particle-based method. Micro-mixing is represented via the IEM model, and the detailed chemistry is based on GRI 3.0 mechanism without NOx chemistry. In terms of the mean temperature, the present multi-environment PDF approach yields the overall agreement with the measurements in the highly fuel-rich MILD oxy-combustion situation with the strong flue gas recirculation even if there exist the certain discrepancies in the upstream region. Special emphasis is given to the effects of the fuel/oxygen injection velocity and O₂/CH₄ ratio on the characteristics of the strongly recirculated MILD oxy-combustion processes. Depending on injection velocity or O₂/CH₄ ratio, the present MEPDF approach well reproduces the qualitative flame transition characteristics from MILD combustion to conventional combustion. The higher fuel/oxygen injection velocity leads to the much longer jet penetration and the much higher SDR level which makes the ignition to occur at further downstream region. The relatively lower O₂/CH₄ ratios maintain the basic characteristics of the MILD combustion while the highest O₂/CH₄ ratio locally creates the oxy-flame like structure rather than the non-visible flame field. Based on numerical results, the detailed discussions are made for flame stabilization, auto-ignition process and precise flame structure in terms of recirculation rate, distribution of turbulent Damköhler number, scalar dissipation rate, mean temperature and mole fraction of CH₂O and OH.     

Investigation on combustion characteristics and NO formation of methane with swirling and non-swirling high temperature air

Combustion characteristics of methane jet flames in an industrial burner working in high temperature combustion regime were investigated experimentally and numerically to clarify the effects of swirling high temperature air on combustion.Speziale-Sarkar-Gatski（SSG） Reynolds stress model,Eddy-Dissipation Model（EDM）,Discrete Ordinates Method（DTM） combined with Weighted-Sum-of-Grey Gases Model（WSGG） were employed for the numerical simulation.Both Thermal-NO and Prompt-NO mechanism were considered to evaluate the NO formation.Temperature distribution,NO emissions by experiment and computation in swirling and non-swirling patterns show combustion characteristics of methane jet flames are totally different.Non-swirling high temperature air made high NO formation while significant NO prohibition were achieved by swirling high temperature air.Furthermore,velocity fields,dimensionless major species mole fraction distributions and Thermal-NO molar reaction rate profiles by computation interpret an inner exhaust gas recirculation formed in the combustion zone in swirling case.     

Impact of injection conditions on flame characteristics from a parallel multi-jet burner

This numerical study systematically investigates the influence of initial injection conditions of reactants on flame characteristics from a parallel multi-jet burner in a laboratory-scale furnace. In particular, varying characteristics from visible flame to invisible Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion is explored. Different parameters examined include the initial separation of fuel and air streams (S), air nozzle diameter (D_a), fuel nozzle diameter (D_f), and air preheat temperature (T_a). The present simulations agree qualitatively well with previous measurements reported elsewhere for two reference cases investigated by experiment. A number of new and significant findings are then deduced from the simulations. For instance, all S, D_a and D_f are found to play significant roles in achieving a proper confluence location of air and fuel jets for establishing the MILD combustion. Particularly, varying D_a is most effective for controlling the combustion characteristics. It is also found that the stability limits of the non-premixed MILD combustion varies with different combustor systems and inlet reactant properties. Moreover, for the first time, several analytical approximations are obtained that relate the flue-gas recirculation rate and the fuel-jet penetration to D_a, D_f, S and also reactant properties.     

Mechanisms of NO formation in MILD combustion of CH4/H2 fuel blends

The mechanisms of formation and destruction of NO in MILD combustion of CH₄/H₂ fuels blends are investigated both experimentally and numerically. Experiments are carried out at a lab-scale furnace with the mass fraction of hydrogen in fuel ranging from 0% to 15%; furnace temperature, extracted heat and exhaust NO_x emissions are measured. Detailed chemical kinetics calculations utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and well-stirred reactor (WSR) are performed to better analyze and isolate the different mechanisms.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on structure and NO formation of highly CO-Rich syngas counterflow nonpremixed flames under MILD combustion regime

The present study has numerically investigated the Moderate or Intense Low oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion regime, combustion processes and NO formation characteristics of the highly CO-rich syngas counterflow nonpremixed flames. To realistically predict the flame properties of the highly CO-rich syngas, the chemistry is represented by the modified GRI 3.0 mechanism. Computations are performed to precisely analyze the flame structure, NO formation rate, and EINO of each NO sub-mechanism. Numerical results reveal that the hydrogen enrichment and oxygen augmentation substantially influence the NO emission characteristics and the dominant NO production route in the CO-rich syngas nonpremixed flames under MILD and high temperature combustion regimes. It is found that the most dominant NO production routes are the NNH path for the lowest oxygen level (3%) and the thermal mechanism for the highest O₂ condition (21%). For the intermediate oxygen level (9%), the most dominant NO production routes are the NNH route for the hydrogen fraction up to 5%, the CO₂ path for the hydrogen fraction range from 5% to 10% and the thermal mechanism for the hydrogen fraction higher than 10%, respectively. To evaluate the contribution of the specific reaction on EINO the sensitivity coefficients are precisely analyzed for NO formation processes with the dominance of NNH/CO₂/Thermal mechanism under the highly CO-rich syngas flames.     

Assessment of steady and unsteady flamelet models for MILD combustion modeling

Moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion is a novel combustion technology with the comparable chemical and turbulent mixing timescales. In the most of literatures, relatively expensive volume-based models are recommended for this combustion regime while this regime is not completely idealized homogenized reactor and nor strong flamelet like. This paper is focused on the assessment of the lower cost, flamelet approach for MILD condition. In this way, simplifying JHC burner of Dally et al. is considered to model using RANS approach. The effects of inclusion of unity versus non-unity Lewis numbers, radiation heat transfer, and various scalar dissipation rates are evaluated. Results show that the flamelet model may not be totally rejected for the MILD condition because it could still capture flame characteristics relatively acceptable. Choosing an appropriate scalar dissipation rate value is discussed for single flamelet and higher values are recommended by O₂ increment. Moreover, considering non-unity Lewis numbers improved species concentration at the jet centerline for low O₂ levels. Furthermore, the unsteady flamelet model with radiation had a better prediction for NO_x especially for higher O₂ Levels.     

A combustion concept for oxyfuel processes with low recirculation rate – Experimental validation

Oxyfuel combustion is a technology for Carbon Capture & Storage from coal fired power plants. One drawback is the large necessary amount of recirculation of cold flue gases into the combustion chamber to avoid inadmissible high flame temperatures. The new concept of Controlled Staging with Non-stoichiometric Burners (CSNB) makes a reduction of the recirculation rate possible without inadmissible high flame temperatures. This reduction promises more compact boiler designs. We present in this paper experiments with the new combustion concept in a 3 × 70 kW natural gas combustion test rig with dry flue gas recirculation of 50% of the cold flue gases. The new concept was compared to a reference air combustion case and a reference oxyfuel combustion case with recirculation of 70% of the cold flue gases. FTIR emission spectroscopy measurements allowed the estimation of spectral radiative heat fluxes in the 2–5.5 μm range. The mixing of the gases in the furnace was good as the burnout and the emissions were comparable to the reference cases. The flame temperatures of the CSNB case could be controlled by the burner operation stoichiometry and were also similar to the reference cases. The heat flux in the furnace through radiation to the wall was higher compared to the oxyfuel reference case. This is an effect of the lowered recirculation rate as the mass flow out of the furnace and therefore the sensible heat leaving the furnace decreases. The higher oxygen consumption with lower recirculation rate could be compensated by a lower furnace stoichiometry. This was possible due to better burnout with increased oxygen concentrations in the burner. The results prove that a reduction of the flue gas recirculation rate in oxyfuel natural gas combustion from 70% down to 50% is possible while avoiding inadmissible high flame temperatures with the concept of Controlled Staging with Non-stoichiometric Burners.     

Flame characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane–air premixed swirling flames

The effect of hydrogen addition in methane–air premixed flames has been examined from a swirl-stabilized combustor under unconfined flame conditions. Different swirlers have been examined to investigate the effect of swirl intensity on enriching methane–air flame with hydrogen in a laboratory-scale premixed combustor operated at 5.81 kW. The hydrogen-enriched methane fuel and air were mixed in a pre-mixer and introduced into the burner having swirlers of different swirl vane angles that provided different swirl strengths. The combustion characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane–air flames at fixed thermal load but different swirl strengths were examined using particle image velocimetry (PIV), OH chemiluminescence, gas analyzers, and micro-thermocouple diagnostics to provide information on flow field, combustion generated OH radical and gas species concentration, and temperature distribution, respectively. The results show that higher combustibility of hydrogen assists to promote faster chemical reaction, raises temperature in the reaction zone and reduces the recirculation flow in the reaction zone. The upstream of flame region is more dependent on the swirl strength than the effect of hydrogen addition to methane fuel. At lower swirl strength condition the NO concentration in the reaction zone reduces with increase in hydrogen content in the fuel mixture. Higher combustibility of hydrogen accelerates the flow to reduce the residence time of hot product gases in the high temperature reaction zone. At higher swirl strength the NO concentration increases with increase in hydrogen content in the fuel mixture. The effect of dynamic expansion of the gases with hydrogen addition appears to be more dominant to reduce the recirculation of relatively cooler gases into the reaction zone. NO concentration also increases with decrease in the swirl strength.     

Liftoff behavior and combustion characteristic of jet flame in a coflow burner

Stabilization and autoignition mechanisms of lifted flames have been widely investigated to improve combustion efficiency and safety of combustion equipment. This paper focuses on liftoff behavior and combustion characteristic of methane and propane flames under various coflow conditions in a coflow burner. Unlike the case of free jet flame in ambient air, the different tendencies of liftoff height changes with jet velocity for both methane and propane flames in vitiated coflow illustrate a transition from conventional combustion to Moderate & Intense Low Oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion. Flame temperature difference with radial position measured by primary spectrum pyrometry proves the transition regime.     

NOx formation in post-flame gases from syngas/air combustion at atmospheric pressure

Species concentration measurements specifically those associated with nitrogen oxides (NO_x) can act as important validation targets for developing kinetic models to predict NO_x emissions under syngas combustion accurately. In the present study, premixed combustion of syngas/air mixtures, with equivalence ratio (Φ) from 0.5 to 1.0 and H₂/CO ratio from 0.25 to 1.0 was conducted in a McKenna burner operating at atmospheric pressure. Temperature and NO_x concentrations were measured in the post-combustion zone. For a given H₂/CO ratio, increasing the equivalence ratio from lean to stoichiometric resulted in an increase in NO and decrease in NO₂ concentration near the flame. Increasing the H₂/CO ratio led to a decrease in the temperature as well as the NO concentration near the flame. Based on the axial profiles above the burner, NO concentration increases right above the flame while NO₂ concentration decreases through NO₂-NO conversion reactions according to the path flux analysis. In addition, the present experiments were operated in the laminar region where multidimensional transport effects play significant roles. In order to account for the radial and axial diffusive and convective coupling to chemical kinetics in laminar flow, a multidimensional model was developed to simulate the post-combustion species and temperature distribution. The measurements were compared against both multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and one-dimensional burner-stabilized flame simulations. The multidimensional model predictions resulted in a better agreement with the measurements, clearly highlighting the effect of multidimensional transport.     

一次风率及循环废气率变化对燃油锅炉运行中氮氧化物生成的影响

研究空气分级和废气循环燃烧等方式对油燃烧中NOx 生成的影响。实验发现 :分级燃烧对于燃料氮的转化有抑制作用 ,而且对含氮量较高的油燃料效果较明显 ,不论燃烧器功率如何 ,降低一次风率总使得NOx 的生成量减少 ;当一次风率占总过量空气系数的 50 %左右时 ,燃料氮的转化率存在一个最小值 ,而后随着一次风率的提高而增大并趋于一常数 ;增加废气循环率能降低油燃烧中NOx 的生成量 ,而且对于含氮量较低的油效果较明显 ,随着废气循环率增加 ,NOx 生成量的降幅趋缓并带来火焰稳定问题 ,因此存在有一个最佳废气循环率 ;废气循环燃烧会增大燃料氮的转化率 ,而且在一次风率较小情况下表现明显     

Effect of the composition of the hot product stream in the quasi-steady extinction of strained premixed flames

The extinction of premixed CH₄/O₂/N₂ flames counterflowing against a jet of combustion products in chemical equilibrium was investigated numerically using detailed chemistry and transport mechanisms. Such a problem is of relevance to combustion systems with non-homogeneous air/fuel mixtures or recirculation of the burnt gases. Contrary to similar studies that were focused on heat loss/gain, depending on the degree of non-adiabaticity of the system, the emphasis here was on the yet unexplored role of the composition of counterflowing burnt gases in the extinction of lean-to-stoichiometric premixed flames. For a given temperature of the counterflowing products of combustion, it was found that the decrease of heat release with increase in strain rate could be either monotonic or non-monotonic, depending on the equivalence ratio φ_b of the flame feeding the hot combustion product stream. Two distinct extinction modes were observed: an abrupt one, when the hot counterflowing stream consists of either inert gas or equilibrium products of a stoichiometric premixed flame, and a smooth extinction, when there is an excess of oxidizing species in the combustion product stream. In the latter case four burning regimes can be distinguished as the strain rate is progressively increased while the heat release decreases smoothly: an adiabatic propagating flame regime, a non-adiabatic propagating flame regime, the so-called partially-extinguished flame regime, in which the location of the peak of heat release crosses the stagnation plane, and a frozen flow regime. The flame structure was analyzed in detail in the different burning regimes. Abrupt extinction was attributed to the quenching of the oxidation layer with the entire H-OH-O radical pool being comparably reduced. Under conditions of smooth extinction, the behavior is different and the concentration of the H radical decreases the most with increasing strain rate, whereas OH and O remain comparatively abundant in the oxidation layer. As the profile of the heat release rate thickens, the oxidation layer is quenched and the attack of the fuel relies more heavily on the OH radicals.