Laminar Flame Speed Measurements of Hydrogen/Natural Gas Mixtures for Gas Turbine Applications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gihun Kim ◽  
Ritesh Ghorpade ◽  
Subith S. Vasu

Abstract Due to the increasingly challenging carbon emission reduction targets, hydrogen-containing fuel combustion is gaining the energy community’s attention, as highlighted recently in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrogen Program Plan [1]. Though fundamental and applied research of hydrogen-containing fuels has been a topic of research for several decades, there are knowledge-gaps and unexplored fuel blend combustion characteristics at conditions relevant to modern gas turbine combustors. Hydrogen will be burned directly or as mixtures with natural gas (NG) and/or ammonia (NH3) in these devices. Fundamental research on the combustion of hydrogen (H2) containing fuels is still essential, especially to overcome or accurately predict challenges such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduction and flashback and develop fuel flexible combustors for a prosperous hydrogen economy. We focused our investigation on a natural gas and hydrogen mixture. Measurements of laminar burning velocity (LBV) are necessary for these fuels to understand their applicability in the turbines and other engines. In this study, the maximum rate of pressure rise and LBV of methane (CH4), CH4/H2, natural gas, and natural gas/H2 mixture were measured in synthetic air. The experimental conditions were at an initial pressure of 1 atm and an initial temperature of 300 K. A realistic natural gas composition from the field was used in this study and consisted of CH4 and other alkanes. The experimental data were compared with simulations carried out with detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms.

Author(s):  
Takumi Ebara ◽  
Norihiko Iki ◽  
Sanyo Takahashi ◽  
Won-Hee Park

Replacing the Nitrogen with another kind of inert gas such as steam and Carbon dioxide is effective for both reducing NOx and enhancing system efficiency in gas turbine combustor. But the flame properties of such radiative mixture are complicated because of the third body effect and radiation reabsorption. So, we made detailed chemical kinetic calculations including the effect of radiation reabsorption to clarify the premixed laminar flame speed of such mixture as one of the most important properties for controlling the combustion. The concentrations of mixture are varied, and addition of other species such as Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen are also calculated to simulate the utilization of reforming gas and partially oxidized gas. And the pressure was varied up to 5.0 MPa to simulate the 1700 °C class combined gas turbine system. The results show remarkable incensement of laminar burning velocity by considering the radiation reabsorption. Laminar burning velocities were accelerated up to 150% in cases of Methane–Oxygen and steam or Carbon dioxide mixture. It was found that preheating of upstream-unburned mixture caused this acceleration. And the influence of radiation reabsorption was much larger in case of lower pressure.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Han ◽  
Zhennan Zhu ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Kun Liang ◽  
Zinong Zuo ◽  
...  

The initial conditions such as temperature, pressure and dilution rate can have an effect on the laminar burning velocity of natural gas. It is acknowledged that there is an equivalent effect on the laminar burning velocity between any two initial conditions. The effects of initial temperatures (323 K–423 K), initial pressures (0.1 MPa–0.3 MPa) and dilution rate (0–16%, CO2 as diluent gas) on the laminar burning velocity and the flame instability were investigated at a series of equivalence ratios (0.7–1.2) in a constant volume chamber. A chemical kinetic simulation was also conducted to calculate the laminar burning velocity and essential radicals’ concentrations under the same initial conditions. The results show that the laminar burning velocity of natural gas increases with initial temperature but decreases with initial pressure and dilution rate. The maximum concentrations of H, O and OH increase with initial temperature but decrease with initial pressure and dilution rate. Laminar burning velocity is highly correlated with the sum of the maximum concentration of H and OH.


Author(s):  
A. Morones ◽  
S. Ravi ◽  
D. Plichta ◽  
E. L. Petersen ◽  
N. Donohoe ◽  
...  

Hydrogen-based fuels have become a primary interest in the gas turbine market. To better predict the reactivity of mixtures containing different levels of hydrogen, laminar and turbulent flame speed experiments have been conducted. The laminar flame speed measurements were performed for various methane and natural gas surrogate blends with significant amounts of hydrogen at elevated pressures (up to 5 atm) and temperatures (up to 450 K) using a heated, high-pressure, cylindrical, constant-volume vessel. The hydrogen content ranged from 50% to 90% by volume. All measurements were compared to a chemical kinetic model, and good agreement within experimental measurement uncertainty was observed over most conditions. Turbulent combustion experiments were also performed for pure H2 and 50:50 H2:CH4 mixtures using a fan-stirred flame speed vessel. All tests were made with a fixed integral length scale of 27 mm and with a turbulent intensity level of 1.5 m/s at 1 atm initial pressure. Most of the turbulent flame speed results were in either the corrugated or thin reaction zones when plotted on a Borghi diagram, with Damköhler numbers up to 100 and turbulent Reynolds numbers between about 100 and 450. Flame speeds for a 50:50 blend of H2:CH4 for both laminar and turbulent cases were about a factor of 1.8 higher than for pure methane.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Morsy ◽  
J. Yang

Abstract Particle image velocimetry (PIV) has become a popular non-intrusive tool for measuring various types of flows. However, when measuring three-dimensional flows with two-dimensional (2D) PIV, there are some uncertainties in the measured velocity field due to out-of-plane motion, which might alter turbulence statistics and distort the overall flow characteristics. In the present study, three different turbulence models are employed and compared. Mean and fluctuating fields obtained by three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics modeling are compared to experimental data. Turbulence statistics such as integral length scale, Taylor microscale, Kolmogorov scale, turbulence kinetic energy, dissipation rate, and velocity correlations are calculated at different experimental conditions (i.e., pressure, temperature, fan speed, etc.). A reasonably isotropic and homogeneous turbulence with large turbulence intensities is achieved in the central region extending to almost 45 mm radius. This radius decreases with increasing the initial pressure. The influence of the third dimension velocity component on the measured characteristics is negligible. This is a result of the axisymmetric features of the flow pattern in the current vessel. The results prove that the present vessel can be conveniently adopted for several turbulent combustion studies including mainly the determination of turbulent burning velocity for gaseous premixed flames in nearly homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Graphic abstract


Author(s):  
Orlando Ugarte ◽  
Suresh Menon ◽  
Wayne Rattigan ◽  
Paul Winstanley ◽  
Priyank Saxena ◽  
...  

Abstract In recent years, there is a growing interest in blending hydrogen with natural gas fuels to produce low carbon electricity. It is important to evaluate the safety of gas turbine packages under these conditions, such as late-light off and flameout scenarios. However, the assessment of the safety risks by performing experiments in full-scale exhaust ducts is a very expensive and, potentially, risky endeavor. Computational simulations using a high fidelity CFD model provide a cost-effective way of assessing the safety risk. In this study, a computational model is implemented to perform three dimensional, compressible and unsteady simulations of reacting flows in a gas turbine exhaust duct. Computational results were validated against data obtained at the simulated conditions in a representative geometry. Due to the enormous size of the geometry, special attention was given to the discretization of the computational domain and the combustion model. Results show that CFD model predicts main features of the pressure rise driven by the combustion process. The peak pressures obtained computationally and experimentally differed in 20%. This difference increased up to 45% by reducing the preheated inflow conditions. The effects of rig geometry and flow conditions on the accuracy of the CFD model are discussed.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7556
Author(s):  
Maria Mitu ◽  
Domnina Razus ◽  
Volkmar Schroeder

The flammable hydrogen-blended methane–air and natural gas–air mixtures raise specific safety and environmental issues in the industry and transportation; therefore, their explosion characteristics such as the explosion limits, explosion pressures, and rates of pressure rise have significant importance from a safety point of view. At the same time, the laminar burning velocities are the most useful parameters for practical applications and in basic studies for the validation of reaction mechanisms and modeling turbulent combustion. In the present study, an experimental and numerical study of the effect of hydrogen addition on the laminar burning velocity (LBV) of methane–air and natural gas–air mixtures was conducted, using mixtures with equivalence ratios within 0.90 and 1.30 and various hydrogen fractions rH within 0.0 and 0.5. The experiments were performed in a 14 L spherical vessel with central ignition at ambient initial conditions. The LBVs were calculated from p(t) data, determined in accordance with EN 15967, by using only the early stage of flame propagation. The results show that hydrogen addition determines an increase in LBV for all examined binary flammable mixtures. The LBV variation versus the fraction of added hydrogen, rH, follows a linear trend only at moderate hydrogen fractions. The further increase in rH results in a stronger variation in LBV, as shown by both experimental and computed LBVs. Hydrogen addition significantly changes the thermal diffusivity of flammable CH4–air or NG–air mixtures, the rate of heat release, and the concentration of active radical species in the flame front and contribute, thus, to LBV variation.


Author(s):  
B. C. Duva ◽  
L. E. Chance ◽  
E. Toulson

Abstract With increased interest in reducing emissions, the staged combustion concept for gas turbine combustors is gaining in popularity. For this work, the effect of CO2 dilution on laminar burning velocities of premixed methane/air flames was investigated at elevated temperature through both experiments and numerical simulations. Validation of the experimental setup and methodology was completed through experimental testing of methane/air mixtures at 1 bar and 298 K. Following validation, high temperature experiments were conducted in an optically accessible constant volume combustion chamber at 1 bar and 473 K. Laminar burning velocities of premixed methane/air flames with 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% CO2 dilution were determined using the constant pressure method enabled via schlieren visualization of the spherically propagating flame front. Results show that laminar burning velocities of methane/air mixtures at 1 bar increase by 106–145% with initial temperature increases from 298 K to 473 K. Additions of 5%, 10%, and 15% CO2 dilution at 1 bar and 473 K cause a 30–35%, 51–54%, and 66–68% decrease in the laminar burning velocity, respectively. Numerical results were obtained with CHEMKIN (Kee et al., 1985, “PREMIX: A Fortran Program for Modeling Steady Laminar One-Dimensional Premixed Flames,”) using the GRI-Mech 3.0 (Smith et al., 2019) and the San Diego (“Chemical-Kinetic Mechanisms for Combustion Applications,” San Diego Mechanism Web Page, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (Combustion Research), University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA) mechanisms. It is concluded that the GRI-Mech 3.0 (Smith et al.., 2019) better captures the general overall trend of the experimental laminar flame speeds of methane/air/CO2 mixtures at 1 bar and 473 K. Additionally, the dilution, thermal-diffusion, and chemical effects of CO2 on the laminar burning velocities of methane/air mixtures were investigated numerically by diluting the mixtures with both chemically active and inactive CO2 following the determination of the most important elementary reactions on the burning rate through sensitivity analysis. Finally, it was shown that CO2 dilution suppresses the flame instabilities during combustion, which is attributable to the increase in the burned gas Markstein length (Lb) with the addition of diluent.


Author(s):  
Marina Braun-Unkhoff ◽  
Jens Dembowski ◽  
Jürgen Herzler ◽  
Jürgen Karle ◽  
Clemens Naumann ◽  
...  

In response to the limited resources of fossil fuels as well as to their combustion contributing to global warming through CO2 emissions, it is currently discussed to which extent future energy demands can be satisfied by using biomass and biogenic by-products, e.g., by cofiring. However, new concepts and new unconventional fuels for electric power generation require a re-investigation of at least the gas turbine burner if not the gas turbine itself to ensure a safe operation and a maximum range in tolerating fuel variations and combustion conditions. Within this context, alcohols, in particular, ethanol, are of high interest as alternative fuel. Presently, the use of ethanol for power generation—in decentralized (microgas turbines) or centralized gas turbine units, neat, or cofired with gaseous fuels like natural gas (NG) and biogas—is discussed. Chemical kinetic modeling has become an important tool for interpreting and understanding the combustion phenomena observed, for example, focusing on heat release (burning velocities) and reactivity (ignition delay times). Furthermore, a chemical kinetic reaction model validated by relevant experiments performed within a large parameter range allows a more sophisticated computer assisted design of burners as well as of combustion chambers, when used within computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Therefore, a detailed experimental and modeling study of ethanol cofiring to NG will be presented focusing on two major combustion properties within a relevant parameter range: (i) ignition delay times measured in a shock tube device, at ambient (p = 1 bar) and elevated (p = 4 bar) pressures, for lean (φ = 0.5) and stoichiometric fuel–air mixtures, and (ii) laminar flame speed data at several preheat temperatures, also for ambient and elevated pressure, gathered from literature. Chemical kinetic modeling will be used for an in-depth characterization of ignition delays and flame speeds at technical relevant conditions. An extensive database will be presented identifying the characteristic differences of the combustion properties of NG, ethanol, and ethanol cofired to NG.


Author(s):  
Victor Burger ◽  
Andy Yates ◽  
Nicholas Savage ◽  
Owen Metcalf

The influence of fuel autoignition chemistry is known to be relevant when approaching the limits of lean blowout and lean ignition in a continuous combustion environment. This was investigated by employing four reference fuels having very different autoignition delay profiles but similar boiling points to interrogate various test environments and thereby to assess the relevance of the differences in autoignition chemistry. A combustion bomb apparatus was used to characterize the reference fuels together with a sample of commercial Jet A-1 for comparison. The measurements were cross-checked using a chemical kinetic simulation model. A continuous combustion rig was used to study the threshold ignition and blowout performance of the pre-vaporized reference fuels and a laminar flame speed bomb was used to study the influence of autoignition chemistry on normal, stoichiometric combustion and normal ignition conditions. In all the experiments, the results reflected the distinctive differences of the test fuels in terms of their autoignition delay timescales. The findings were interpreted against the background of the commercial jet fuel autoignition chemistry and the relevance of traditional autoignition delay metrics such as Octane or Cetane rating. Notwithstanding the influence of fuel evaporation and mixing timescales which can exert an overriding influence in a practical, gas turbine application, it was concluded that the fuel’s autoignition delay timescale also plays a very significant role in threshold operational situations.


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