Effects of hydrogen addition on NO<i>_x</i> formation in a non-premixed methane low-NO<i>_x</i> combustor

Abstract

Hydrogen is a promising carbon-free fuel, but nitric oxides (NO x ) emissions are significantly increased with higher temperature in hydrogen combustion. Internal flue gas recirculation (IFGR) is one of the most effective NO x reduction techniques in boilers. Previous research has widely reported NO x generation with hydrogen enrichments from a chemical kinetic perspective, however, the NO x formation principles in non-premixed methane/air combustion using IFGR with hydrogen addition are still unclear. This work aims to investigate the effects of hydrogen addition on NO x formation in a non-premixed methane low-NO x combustor using IFGR. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations were conducted on a 5 kW non-premixed combustor with IFGR rate of 17.7%, which generated 11.3 mg/m 3 of total NO x generation in methane combustion. A series of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with detailed mechanisms was tested on four hydrogen power fractions. The reaction intensities of the main NO x formation pathways were analyzed on reaction rates. The results show that 70% hydrogen power fractions lead to significantly greater NO x concentration to 677.8 mg/m 3 , as high as 60 times of the original concentration. With no additional techniques, the original methane low-NO x combustor is only allowed for hydrogen addition of less than 20% power fraction. The NNH route becomes the second dominant pathway in hydrogen-added flames. Influenced by the growing hydrogen contents, the generation of the NNH route is largely generated from 2 mg/m 3 to 65 mg/m 3 . This work connects the hydrogen addition and the NO x formation pathways in non-premixed methane combustion, and highlights the importance of eliminating thermal NO x and the NNH route to achieve low-NO x combustion rather than sole NO x suppression method, which can provide a reference for designing low-NO x techniques.