An experimental study on the reaction characteristics of a coupled reactor with a catalytic combustor and a steam reformer for SOFC systems

Steam reforming performance in a coupled reactor that consists of a steam reformer and a catalytic combustor is experimentally investigated in this study. Endothermic steam reforming can occur through the absorption of heat from the catalytic combustion of the anode offgas in a heat-exchanging coupled reactor. The reaction characteristics were observed by varying parameters such as the inlet temperature of the catalytic combustor, the excess air ratio for the catalytic combustion, the fuel utilization rate in the fuel cells, and the steam-to-carbon ratio in the steam reformer. The reactor temperature and reformate composition were measured to analyze the performance of the reactor. The results show the potential applicability and design technologies of the coupled reactor for the fuel processing of high temperature fuel cells using an external reformer.     

The effect of reformer gas mixture on the performance and emissions of an HSDI diesel engine

Exhaust gas assisted fuel reforming is an attractive on-board hydrogen production method, which can open new frontiers in diesel engines. Apart from hydrogen, and depending on the reactions promoted, the reformate typically contains a significant amount of carbon monoxide, which is produced as a by-product. Moreover, admission of reformed gas into the engine, through the inlet pipe, leads to an increase of intake air nitrogen to oxygen ratio. It is therefore necessary to study how a mixture of syngas and nitrogen affects the performance and emissions of a diesel engine, in order to gain a better understanding of the effects of supplying fuel reformer products into the engine.     

Design of a methanol reformer for on-board production of hydrogen as fuel for a 3 kW High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell power system

The method of Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to predict the process parameters and select the optimum operating regime of a methanol reformer for on-board production of hydrogen as fuel for a 3 kW High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell power system. The analysis uses a three reactions kinetics model for methanol steam reforming, water gas shift and methanol decomposition reactions on Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalyst. Numerical simulations are performed at single channel level for a range of reformer operating temperatures and values of the molar flow rate of methanol per weight of catalyst at the reformer inlet. Two operating regimes of the fuel processor are selected which offer high methanol conversion rate and high hydrogen production while simultaneously result in a small reformer size and a reformate gas composition that can be tolerated by phosphoric acid-doped high temperature membrane electrode assemblies for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Based on the results of the numerical simulations, the reactor is sized, and its design is optimized.     

Autothermal reforming of n-dodecane and desulfurized Jet-A fuel for producing hydrogen-rich syngas

Catalytic reforming is a technology to produce hydrogen and syngas from heavy hydrocarbon fuels in order to supply hydrogen to fuel cells. A lab-scale 2.5 kW_t autothermal reforming (ATR) system with a specially designed reformer and combined analysis of balance-of-plant was studied and tested in the present study. NiO–Rh based bimetallic catalysts with promoters of Ce, K, and La were used in the reformer. The performance of the reformer was studied by checking the hydrogen selectivity, CO_x selectivity, and energy conversion efficiency at various operating temperatures, steam to carbon ratios, oxygen to carbon ratios, and reactants' inlet temperatures. The experimental work firstly tested n-dodecane as the surrogate of Jet-A fuel to optimize operating conditions. After that, desulfurized commercial Jet-A fuel was tested at the optimized operating conditions. The design of the reformer and the catalyst are recommended for high performance Jet-A fuel reforming and hydrogen-rich syngas production.     

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.     

Hydrogen-rich gas generation via the exhaust gas-fuel reformer for the marine LNG engine

Reformed exhaust gas recirculation technology has attracted great attention in internal combustion engines. A platform of an exhaust gas-fuel reformer connected with the marine LNG engine was set up for generating on-board hydrogen. Based on the platform, effects of the methane to oxygen ratio (M/O) and reformed exhaust gas ratio (R_EG) from the reformer and excess air ratio (λ) from the engine on the components, hydrogen yield, thermal efficiency and reforming process of the reformer were experimentally investigated. Results shown that hydrogen-rich gases (reformate) can be generated by reforming the mixture of engine exhaust gas (about 400 °C) and methane supplied via the reformer with Ni/Al₂O₃ catalyst, and the hydrogen concentration of reformate was between 6.2% and 12.6% by volume. The methane supplied rate and λ affected the components and temperature of the reactant in the reformer, while R_EG changed the gas hour space velocity during the exhaust gas-fuel reforming processes, resulting in the difference in the components of the reformate and thermal efficiency. At the present experimental condition, the highest H₂ concentration reformate was generated under the M/O of 2.0, λ of 1.55 and R_EG of 6%.     

Investigation of a methanol processing system comprising of a steam reformer and two preferential oxidation reactors for fuel cells

Methanol steam reforming is able to produce hydrogen-rich syngas onsite for fuel cells and avoids the problems of hydrogen storage. Nevertheless, CO in the reformate needs to be further removed to ppm level before it can be fed into proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this study, a methanol processing system consisting of a methanol reformer and two-stage preferential oxidation reactors is developed. The hydrogen production performance and scalability of the reformer are experimentally investigated under various operating conditions. The methanol reformer system shows stable methanol conversion rate and linearly increased H₂ flow rate as the number of repeating unit increases. Methanol conversion rate of 96.8% with CO concentration of 1.78% are achieved in the scaled-up system. CO cleanup ability of the two-stage preferential oxidation reactors is experimentally investigated based on the reformate compositions by varying the operating temperature and O₂ to CO ratios. The results demonstrate that the developed CO cleanup train can decrease the CO concentration from 1.6% to below 10 ppm, which meets the requirement of the fuel cell. Finally, stability of the integrated methanol processing system is tested for 180 h operation.     

Integrated fuel cell APU based on a compact steam reformer for diesel and a PEMFC

This paper presents experimental results of a diesel steam reforming fuel processor operated in conjunction with a gas cleanup module and coupled operation with a PEM fuel cell. The fuel processor was operated with two different precious-metal based reformer catalysts, using diesel surrogate with a sulfur content of less than 2 ppmw as fuel. The first reformer catalyst entails an increasing residual hydrocarbon concentration for increasing reformer fuel feed. The second reformer catalyst exhibits a significantly lower residual hydrocarbon concentration in the reformate gas.     

On-board generation of hydrogen to improve in-cylinder combustion and after-treatment efficiency and emissions performance of a hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine

Hydrogen on-board fuel reforming has been identified as a waste energy recovery technology with potential to improve Internal combustion engines (ICE) efficiency. Additionally, can help to reduce CO₂, NO_x and particulate matter (PM) emissions. As this thermochemical energy is recovered from the hot exhaust stream and used in an efficient way by endothermic catalytic reforming of petrol mixed with a fraction of the engine exhaust gas. The hydrogen-rich reformate has higher enthalpy than the petrol fed to the reformer and is recirculated to the intake manifold, which will be called reformed exhaust gas recirculation (rEGR).The rEGR system has been simulated by supplying hydrogen (H₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) into a conventional Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system. The hydrogen and CO concentrations in the rEGR stream were selected to be achievable in practice at typical gasoline exhaust temperatures (temperatures between 300 and 600 °C). A special attention has been paid on comparing rEGR to the baseline ICE, and to conventional EGR. The results demonstrate the potential of rEGR to simultaneously increase thermal efficiency, reduce gaseous emissions and decrease PM formation.Complete fuel reformation can increase the calorific value of the fuel by 28%. This energy can be provided by the waste heat in the exhaust and so it is ideal for combination with a gasoline engine with its high engine-out exhaust temperatures.The aim of this work is to demonstrate that exhaust gas fuel reforming on an engine is possible and is commercially viable. Also, this paper demonstrates how the combustion of reformate in a direct injection gasoline engine via reformed Exhaust Gas Recirculation (rEGR) can be beneficial to engine performance and emissions.     

甲醇和甲醇重整气对直喷汽油机性能影响的对比研究

基于GT-Power并耦合层流火焰速度经验公式开展了甲醇和甲醇重整气对直喷汽油机性能影响的对比分析。首先分别基于双燃料层流火焰速度经验公式,求取了异辛烷-甲醇和汽油-甲醇重整气层流火焰速度,根据层流火焰速度计算出燃烧持续期,作为燃烧模型的输入变量,进而探讨了汽油掺混不同比例的甲醇及甲醇重整气对发动机性能的影响规律。研究结果表明:掺混甲醇重整气与直接掺混甲醇相比,发动机有效热效率和输出转矩明显增加,当量比油耗降低,CO排放水平相当,但NOx排放增加。尤其在稀燃条件下,掺混甲醇重整气使热效率增加明显,这说明燃料重整方式在提高直喷汽油机热效率方面更有应用潜力。     

Numerical simulation of a hydrogen fuelled gas turbine combustor

The interest for hydrogen-fuelled combustors is recently growing thanks to the development of gas turbines fed by high content hydrogen syngas. The diffusion flame combustion is a well-known and consolidated technology in the field of industrial gas turbine applications. However, few CFD analyses on commercial medium size heavy duty gas turbine fuelled with pure hydrogen are available in the literature. This paper presents a CFD simulation of the air-hydrogen reacting flow inside a diffusion flame combustor of a single shaft gas turbine. The 3D geometrical model extends from the compressor discharge to the gas turbine inlet (both liner and air plenum are included). A coarse grid and a very simplified reaction scheme are adopted to evaluate the capability of a rather basic model to predict the temperature field inside the combustor. The interest is focused on the liner wall temperatures and the turbine inlet temperature profile since they could affect the reliability of components designed for natural gas operation. Data of a full-scale experimental test are employed to validate the numerical results. The calculated thermal field is useful to explain the non-uniform distribution of the temperature measured at the turbine inlet.     

A diesel fuel processor for stable operation of solid oxide fuel cells system: II. Integrated diesel fuel processor for the operation of solid oxide fuel cells

Post-reforming experimental results for the complete removal of light hydrocarbons from diesel reformate are introduced in part I. In part II of the paper, an integrated diesel fuel processor is investigated for the stable operation of SOFCs. Several post-reforming processors have been operated to suppress both sulfur poisoning and carbon deposition on the anode catalyst. The integrated diesel fuel processor is composed of an autothermal reformer, a desulfurizer, and a post-reformer. The autothermal reforming section in the integrated diesel fuel processor effectively decomposes aromatics, and converts fuel into H₂-rich syngas. The subsequent desulfurizer removes sulfur-containing compounds present in the diesel reformate. Finally, the post-reformer completely removes the light hydrocarbons, which are carbon precursors, in the diesel reformate. We successfully operate the diesel reformer, desulfurizer, and post-reformer as microreactors for about 2500 h in an integrated mode. The degradation rate of the overall reforming performance is negligible for the 2000 h, and light hydrocarbons and sulfur-containing compounds are completely removed from the diesel reformate.     

Performance and emissions characteristics of a lean-burn marine natural gas engine with the addition of hydrogen-rich reformate

The exhaust gas-fuel reforming technique known as reformed exhaust gas recirculation (REGR) can generate on-board hydrogen-rich gas mixture (i.e., reformate) by catalytic reforming of the exhaust gas and fuel added into the reformer and then recirculate the reformate into the engine cylinder, which can realize the combination of hydrogen-rich lean combustion and exhaust gas recirculation. The REGR technique can be employed to achieve efficient and stable lean-burn combustion for the marine engine fueled with natural gas (i.e., marine NG engine) and it is considered as an effective way to meet the stringent ship emissions regulations. In the present study, an experimental investigation into the effects of reformate addition ratio (R_re) and excess air ratio (λ) on the combustion and emissions characteristics of a marine NG engine under various loads was conducted, and the potential of applying the REGR technique in a marine NG engine to achieve low emissions (i.e., International Maritime Organization Tier Ⅲ emissions legislations for international ships) was discussed. The results indicate that the addition of the hydrogen-rich reformate gases can extend lean-burn limit. For a given λ, the flame development duration and rapid combustion duration decrease with the increase of R_re, and the combustion efficiency is improved. The brake specific NO_x emissions first increase and then decrease with the increase of R_re due to the competition between the combustion phase and total heat release value. The brake specific THC emissions decline with the increase of R_re, while the reverse holds for the brake specific CO emissions, and the behavior tends to be obvious under large λ. It is demonstrated that the combination of REGR and the lean-burn combustion strategy can improve the trade-off relationship between the NO_x emissions and brake specific fuel consumption of the marine NG engine to meet the IMO Tier Ⅲ NO_x emissions legislations and maintain relatively low brake specific fuel consumption.     

Distributed swirl combustion for gas turbine application

Colorless distributed combustion (CDC) has been shown to provide significant improvement in gas turbine combustor performance. Colorless distributed combustion with swirl is investigated here to develop ultra-low emissions of NO and CO, and significantly improved pattern factor. Experimental investigations have been performed using a cylindrical geometry combustor with swirling air injection and axial hot gas exit stream from the combustor. Air was injected tangentially to impart swirl to the flow inside the combustor. The results obtained from the combustor have demonstrated very low levels of NO (∼3 PPM) and CO (∼70 PPM) emissions at an equivalence ratio of 0.7 and a high heat release intensity of 36 MW/m³-atm under non-premixed combustion. To further simulate gas turbine operating conditions, inlet air to the combustor was preheated to 600 K temperature and the combustor operated at 2 atm pressure. Results showed very low levels of CO (∼10 PPM) but the NO increased somewhat to ∼10 PPM at an equivalence ratio of 0.5 and heat release intensity of 22.5 MW/m³-atm under non-premixed combustion conditions. For premixed combustion, the combustor demonstrated low levels of both NO (5 PPM) and CO (8 PPM) at an equivalence ratio of 0.6 and a heat release intensity of 27 MW/m³-atm. Results are reported at different equivalence ratios on the emission of NO and CO, lean stability limit and OH^* chemiluminescence. These results suggest that further performance improvement can be achieved with improved fuel mixture preparation prior to the ignition of fuel at higher operational pressures using swirling combustor design for our quest to develop ultra low emission high intensity combustor for gas turbine application.     

多流体模型在燃气轮机燃烧室三维反应流中的应用

对一种模型燃气轮机燃烧室中的三维反应流进行了数值模拟，模型燃烧室的燃料是CH4，燃烧类型是预混燃烧，在数值模拟过程中，采用了Spalding于1995年提出来的多流体模型来对燃烧室中的湍流预混燃烧进行了数值模拟，在数值模拟过程中考虑了辐射问题，采用了六通量辐射模型。通过数值模拟给出了速度，压力，湍流脉动动能，湍流动能耗散率，焓值，湍流粘度，温度，密度，燃烧产物质量分数，氧的质量分数，燃料/空气混合比，燃料质量分数，空间三个方向的辐射热通量以及各种流体的质量分数等变量的分布情况，此外，还采用传统的旋涡破碎模型对此燃烧室进行了数值模拟，并对两种方法的结果进行了分析比较，由分析可以看出多流体模型的结果接近于实际情况，对模型燃烧室进行三维反应流数值模拟的工作为今后对实际燃烧室反应流的数值模拟打下了一定的基础。     

Simulation of dual firing of hydrogen-rich reformate and JP-8 surrogate in a swirling combustor

Flame control, particularly at very lean conditions, is a critical requirement for external combustion power sources such as thermoelectric and thermophotovoltaic generators. The availability of in-situ produced hydrogen from JP-8 fuel reforming presents a potential supply of hydrogen at the application site, such as the battlefield, without adding a second fuel to the logistics system. This research investigates the use of small amounts of hydrogen co-fired with JP-8 for improved energy efficiency, operational flexibility and environmental protection. Numerical simulations were conducted in a 6 kW (thermal) swirling flow combustor under different conditions. The simulations use hydrogen and a single hydrocarbon surrogate for JP-8 with a 4-step reaction mechanism. It also examined the effect of using hydrogen-rich reformate containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases dual-fired with JP-8. Results showed that at lean conditions, dual firing of hydrogen or reformate with JP-8 provided improved fuel conversion, better flame stability and higher fuel burnout. Dual firing hydrogen-rich reformate and JP-8 led to increased burner capacity, reduced system size and weight requirements. However, dual firing with hydrogen provided little benefit to JP-8 combustion under stoichiometric or fuel rich conditions because they were limited by mixing rather than chemical kinetics. These results indicate that dual firing of hydrogen with JP-8 is a promising method for improving lean flame stability and burner control. This has the potential to enable small scale power applications with specific temperature requirements such as thermoelectric and thermophotovoltaic generators.     

燃气轮机环形燃烧室内燃烧流动的数值模拟

对一个复杂的GE—F101型工业燃气轮机环形燃烧室，采用Reynolds应力湍流模型(RSM)、EBU—Arrhenius湍流燃烧模型和六通量热辐射模型描述其燃烧流动，应用FLUENT软件进行了三维化学反应流场的数值模拟研究。研究结果表明：旋流和燃料进口射流对燃烧室流内温度和流场分布有着重要的影响；利用数值手段得到燃烧室出口的温度分布以判断其能否满足透平叶片进口温度的要求是可行的；燃烧室工作压强对出口的NO分布有着重要影响。在燃用气体燃料时，燃气轮机的NO排放主要来自于热NO，瞬时NO只占很小一部分。图11参6     

Experimental and computational investigations of a compact steam reformer for fuel oil and diesel fuel

The present work describes the optimisation of a compact steam reformer for light fuel oil and diesel fuel. The reformer is based upon a catalytically coated micro heat exchanger that thermally couples the reforming reaction with a catalytic combustion. Since the reforming process is sensitive to reaction temperatures and internal flow patterns, the reformer was modelled using a commercial CFD code in order to optimise its geometry. Fluid flow, heat transfer and chemical reactions were considered on both sides of the heat exchanger. The model was successfully validated with experimental data from reformer tests with 4 kW, 6 kW and 10 kW thermal inputs of light fuel oil. In further simulations the model was applied to investigate parallel flow, counter flow and cross flow conditions along with inlet geometry variations for the reformer. The experimental results show that the reformer design allows inlet temperatures below 773 K because of its internal superheating capability. The simulation results indicate that two parallel flow configurations provide fast superheating and high fuel conversion rates. The temperature increase inside the reactor is influenced by the inlet geometry on the combustion side.     

Counter-rotating dual-stage swirling combustion characteristics of hydrogen and carbon monoxide at constant fuel flow rate

In this paper, experimental and numerical methods were used to study the combustion characteristics of a counter-rotating double-stage swirling syngas combustor at constant fuel flow rate, and the effect on it of hydrogen content of syngas. In the experiment, the speed and temperature in the combustor were respectively obtained with PIV and temperature rake, while Reynolds stress equation model and the detailed chemical reaction mechanism of syngas were adopted in the numerical method. The calculation results were in good agreement with the experimental data. Research results indicated that in the working conditions of different hydrogen contents, the flow field structures in the combustor are almost the same, and the maximum temperatures at the outlet remain almost the same. However, as hydrogen content in the fuel increases, the axial velocity in the central area of flow field is increasing, and the outlet temperature distribution coefficient decreases first and then increases. In addition, it was also found in the study that the distribution structure of temperature on the central section of the combustor is almost impervious to the changes in hydrogen content, but with numerical differences, i.e. the higher hydrogen content in the fuel, the farther the stabilization position of flames in the central area is away from the head. It was also indicated in the study that the conventional combustor is no longer applicable to the combustion of syngas, especially the hydrogen-rich fuel. And the work provided the improvement scheme of hydrogen-containing fuel for gas turbine combustor.     

重型燃气轮机先进低NOx燃烧技术分析

对重型燃气轮机领域中的低NOx燃烧技术进行介绍与说明,首先简要论述了重型燃气轮机燃烧室中氮氧化物的产生机理及抑制方法,其次,介绍了贫预混多喷嘴分级燃烧技术、富油/烽熄/贫油燃烧技术和贫预混低旋流燃烧技术等7种可用于重型燃气轮机燃烧室的先进低NOx燃烧技术,并详细论述了这7种低NOx燃烧技术的作用原理及应用进展,可为国内重型燃气轮机低污染燃烧室的设计与研制提供技术参考.