Liquid Fuelled Low NOx Radial Swirlers With Central Pilot Combustion

Radial swirlers have proved effective in achieving low NOx using natural gas and this work investigates their use with kerosene with and without a central NG pilot. Two kerosene fuel injection locations were compared: at the inlet to the vane passages on the centreline with co-flow injection and 20mm downstream of the 76mm diameter swirler exit through the wall of a 76mm diameter 40mm long discharge duct. Flash back and auto ignition problems cannot occur with the downstream wall fuel injection location. All configurations were also tested with natural gas so that the difference in emissions due to the change from gas to liquid fuel could be established. The results show that ultra low NOx emissions can be achieved for kerosene with vane passage injection and that the use of a central pilot increases the NOx but improves the flame stability and power turndown. However, on liquid fuels the pilot to main flame propagation was not as good as when natural gas was used as the main fuel. Liquid fuel injection at the radial swirler wall outlet was effective but had slightly higher NOx for lean mixtures and worse HC and CO emissions. However, for richer primary zone mixtures the NOx was lower than for vane passage injection and this indicated that rich/lean combustion was occurring, without the uniform mixing and low NOx combustion that occurred with natural gas injection at this location.