Effect of Catalyst Length and Hydrogen Addition on the Combustion Characteristics ofn-Butane in a Catalytic Swiss-Roll Combustor

Abstract

The effect of catalyst length and hydrogen addition on the combustion characteristics of n-butane in a catalytic Swiss-roll combustor was studied experimentally. The results show that the 4.5-mm ceramic with Pt catalyst slightly outperforms the 3.0-and 6.0-mm ceramics. However, changing only the catalyst length does not expand the lower flammable limits to lean fuel. Further experiments on the combustor with the 4.5-mm ceramic show that the addition of hydrogen to flammable mixtures can expand the lower flammable limits of such mixtures to lower than 0.5. Analyses on exhaust gas and stable combustion temperature indicate that hydrogen supplies heat through complete combustion and enhances the n-butane conversion ratio. A high amount of hydrogen is favorable for flammable range expansion. Moreover, a higher amount of hydrogen can further reduce the lower limits.

Two-Dimensional Numerical Study of Methane-Air Combustion Within Catalytic and Non-catalytic Porous Medium

“…Shahamiri and Wierzba ( 2010 ) further studied the effect of the addition of hydrogen to the biogas/air mixture on combustion in a catalytic porous burner using detailed surface chemistry, which indicated that hydrogen can improve the oxidation of methane. Zhong et al ( 2015 ) experimentally studied the effect of catalyst length on the combustion characteristics of n-butane and showed that the lower flame stability limits did not extend with various lengths of the catalyst. Yang et al ( 2015 ) studied the combustion of methane (CH 4 ) in nickel (Ni) foam supported Pd/Al 2 O 3 catalyst and proved that the nickel (Ni) foam supported the Pd/Al 2 O 3 catalyst, with better performance.…”