Fuel Property Effects on the Fate of Volume Distributed Combustion Available to Purchase

Colorless Distributed Combustion (CDC) has been shown to provide singular benefits on ultra-low pollutants emission, enhanced stability and thermal field uniformity. To achieve CDC conditions, fuel-air mixture must be properly prepared and mixed with hot reactive gases from within the combustor prior to the mixture ignition. Hot reactive gases reduce the oxygen concentration in the mixture while increasing its temperature. In this paper, the impact of fuel type (methane, propane, and hydrogen enriched methane) on achieving distributed combustion is investigated. A mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide was mixed to simulate the hot recirculated gases at different temperatures using normal air upstream of the combustor. Increasing the amounts of nitrogen and carbon dioxide reduced the oxygen concentration within the combustor. Distributed combustion was identified through OH* chemiluminescence distribution across the combustor. For methane, this oxygen concentration varied between 13.8% and 11.2% (depending on the mixture temperature) with some 85% reduction in NO emissions as compared to that without entrainment. Similar behavior was demonstrated with propane and hydrogen enriched methane, albeit at a lower oxygen concentration (13.7%–11.6% and 12.2%–10.5%), to result in 94% and 92% reduction in NO emission, respectively. The inlet gas temperature was varied between 300K and 750K. Experimental data using a variety of fuels showed NO emissions of 1 PPM or less. Analysis and extrapolation of obtained data suggest that distributed combustion can be achieved at an oxygen concentration of 9.5% for hot reactive entrained gases having a temperature of 1800K. This value may be used as a guideline to achieve distributed combustion with ultra-low emission.