Impact of Oxygen Enriched Air on High Intensity Combustion and Emission

Author(s):  
Ahmed O. Said ◽  
Ahmed E. E. Khalil ◽  
Daniel Dalgo ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta

The influence of oxygen enriched air-methane flame under non-premixed and premixed fuel-lean combustion conditions is examined with focus on the emission of NO and CO, combustor exit temperature (Texit), and distribution of OH* chemiluminescence intensity. A cylindrical combustor was used at combustion intensity of 36MW/m3.atm and heat load of 6.25 kW. Results are also reported with normal air (21% oxygen). Oxygen enrichment provided stable combustion operation at lower equivalence ratios than normal air and also reduced CO emission. Increase in oxygen concentration from 21% to 25% and 30% increased the NO and decreased CO emissions at all equivalence ratios examined. Using 30% O2 enriched air in premixed case showed NO emissions of 11.4 ppm and 4.6 ppm at equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 0.4, respectively. Oxygen enrichment also reduced CO emission to 38 ppm at equivalence ratio of 0.5. Operating the combustor with normal air at these equivalence ratios resulted in unstable combustion. OH* Chemiluminescence revealed increased chemiluminescence intensity with the reaction zone to shift upstream at increased oxygen concentration. The exhaust temperature of the combustor increased with oxygen enrichment leading to lower CO concentration and increased combustion efficiency. The oxidizer injected at higher velocities mitigated the impact of reaction zone to move upstream that helped to reduce significantly both the NO and CO emission specifically under non-premixed combustion.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed O. Said ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta

A novel combustion technology which combines colorless distributed combustion (CDC) and oxygen enriched combustion (OEC) air is examined to achieve optimum benefits of both technologies and to foster novel technologies for cleaner environment. The influence of oxygen enriched air–methane flames under nonpremixed and premixed fuel-lean combustion conditions is examined with focus on emission of NO and CO, combustor exit temperature (Texit), and distribution of reaction zone in the combustor using OH* chemiluminescence intensity distribution. A cylindrical combustor was used at combustion intensity of 36 MW/m3·atm and heat load of 6.25 kW. Results are also reported with normal air (21% oxygen). Oxygen enrichment provided stable combustion operation at lower equivalence ratios than normal air and also reduced CO emission. Increase in oxygen concentration from 21% to 25% or 30% increased the NO and decreased CO emissions at all the equivalence ratios examined. Using 30% O2 enriched air in premixed case showed NO emissions of 11.4 ppm and 4.6 ppm at equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 0.4, respectively. Oxygen enrichment also reduced CO emission to 38 ppm at equivalence ratio of 0.5. Operating the combustor with normal air at these equivalence ratios resulted in unstable combustion. OH* chemiluminescence revealed increased intensity with the reaction zone to shift upstream at increased oxygen concentration. The exhaust temperature of the combustor increased with oxygen enrichment leading to lower CO concentration and increased combustion efficiency. The oxidizer injected at higher velocities moved the reaction zone to upstream location with simultaneous reduction of both NO and CO, specifically under nonpremixed combustion.


Author(s):  
Ahmed E. E. Khalil ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta

Colorless Distributed Combustion (CDC) has shown significant improvements in terms of high combustion efficiency, ultra-low pollutants emission, low combustion noise, uniform thermal field, and enhanced stability. Colorless distributed combustion is fostered through reduced oxygen concentration and high temperature oxidizer to result in distributed reaction over a larger volume of the combustor and uniform thermal field. In this paper, the interaction between fluid mechanics (velocity field, characterized through particle image velocimetry) and the reaction region (identified through hydroxyl planar laser induced fluorescence) is investigated with focus on swirl assisted distributed combustion. Nitrogen/Carbon Dioxide mixture was added to the normal air upstream of the burner to simulate the hot reactive gases. Comparing the PIV data for reacting conditions with OH-PLIF revealed significant difference between normal swirl and CDC flames. In swirl flame, the flame was located around the shear layer of the entry jet (with both the inner and outer recirculation zones) where the velocity fluctuations and OH-PLIF fluctuations coincided. Flame transitioning to CDC pushed the reaction zone further downstream to locate at a position of lower velocity than what was found for swirl flames. In addition, the reaction zone occupied a much larger volume with lower signal intensity to exhibit distributed reaction. Experiments performed at same flow rates and velocities but with no reduction in oxygen concentration confirmed that the change in reaction behavior is attributed to the lower oxygen concentration rather than the increased flowrates due to dilution.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 264
Author(s):  
Wenhan Zhao ◽  
Jiancheng Li ◽  
Lijun Liu

The continuous-feeding Czochralski method is a cost-effective method to grow single silicon crystals. An inner crucible is used to prevent the un-melted silicon feedstock from transferring to the melt-crystal interface in this method. A series of global simulations were carried out to investigate the impact of the inner crucible on the oxygen impurity distributions at the melt-crystal interface. The results indicate that, the inner crucible plays a more important role in affecting the O concentration at the melt-crystal interface than the outer crucible. It can prevent the oxygen impurities from being transported from the outer crucible wall effectively. Meanwhile, it also introduces as a new source of oxygen impurity in the melt, likely resulting in a high oxygen concentration zone under the melt-crystal interface. We proposed to enlarge the inner crucible diameter so that the oxygen concentration at the melt-crystal interface can be controlled at low levels.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Akinpelu ◽  
Ingmar Schoegl

Abstract Within the area of combustion, externally heated microtubes have been introduced to study the combustion characteristics of fuels and fuel blends. Microreactors have advantages over other conventional fuel testing methods because of their potential to test small volumes (< 20 μl) at high throughput. In this work, a high-pressure microreactor is designed and implemented to test fuels up to a pressure of 20 bar where automated testing reduces test time substantially. The novelty of this device is its capability to operate at pressure exceeding the current state of the art of 12 bar. The combustion behavior of fuels is tested in an externally heated quartz tube, with a diameter less than the conventional quenching diameter of the fuel. The ultimate objective of the experiment is to investigate the impact of fuel on flame characteristics. The ability to reach engine relevant pressure conditions and its inherent small volume requirements make this device a potential candidate for measurements of laboratory transportation fuels and fuel blends. For initial validation, tests from an earlier intermediate pressure experiment with ethane/air and nitrogen mixtures are repeated. Chemiluminescence images are taken to evaluate the combustion characteristics in terms of the three classical flame regimes: weak flames, Flames with Repetitive Extinction, and Ignition (FREI) and normal flames. Previous results at intermediate pressure showed that as the pressure increases, the weak flame and FREI regimes shift towards lower velocities. Also, as dilution level increase (i.e. reducing oxygen concentration), the transition from the weak flame to FREI becomes less abrupt and is completely lost for marginal oxygen concentration. The objective of this study is to document flame dynamics at higher pressures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Romano ◽  
Roberto Meloni ◽  
Giovanni Riccio ◽  
Pier Carlo Nassini ◽  
Antonio Andreini

Abstract This paper addresses the impact of natural gas composition on both the operability and emissions of lean premixed gas turbine combustion system. This is an issue of growing interest due to the challenge for gas turbine manufacturers in developing fuel-flexible combustors capable of operating with variable fuel gases while producing very low emissions at the same time. Natural gas contains primarily methane (CH4) but also notable quantities of higher order hydrocarbons such as ethane (C2H6) can also be present. A deep understanding of natural gas combustion is important to obtain the highest combustion efficiency with minimal environmental impact. For this purpose, Large Eddy Simulations of an annular combustor sector equipped with a partially premixed burner are carried out for two different natural gas compositions with and without including the effect of flame strain rate and heat loss resulting in a more adequate description of flame shape, thermal field, and extinction phenomena. Promising results, in terms of NOx, compared against available experimental data, are obtained including these effects on the flame brush modeling, enhancing the fuel-dependency under nonadiabatic condition.


Author(s):  
Francisco J. Martinez Zambrano ◽  
Armin K. Silaen ◽  
Kelly Tian ◽  
Joe Maiolo ◽  
Chenn Zhou

Abstract Steelmaking is an energy-intensive process. Thus, energy efficiency is highly important. Several stages of steelmaking involve combustion processes. One of the most energy-consuming processes in steelmaking is the slab reheating process in a reheat furnace (RF). The energy released by fuel combustion is used to heat steel slabs to their proper hot-rolling temperature. The steel slabs move through the reheat furnace passing the three stages of heating called: Preheating Zone (PZ), Heating Zone (HZ), and Soaking Zone (SZ) to finally leave the discharge door at a rolling temperature of 2375 °F. One way to improve a reheat furnace’s fuel consumption is by implementing oxygen-enriched combustion. This study investigates the implementation of oxygen-enriched combustion in a pusher-type reheat furnace. The increment of oxygen in the combustion process allows for increasing the furnace gas temperature. Consequently, the oxygen enrichment approach allows for the reduction of fuel injection. The principal goal of this investigation is to model the combustion-based on oxygen-enrichment and develop parametric studies of fuel injection rates. The different simulations aim to match the slab heat flux profile of the industrial reheat furnace pusher-type. Computational fluid dynamics are used to generate the slab heat flux distribution. To reach more uniform slab heating, oxygen and fuel ports were alternated. Also, injection angles were modified to optimize slab heating and avoid the impact of hot spots. Thermocouple readings of the industrial reheat furnace are compared to simulation results. The results determined that 40–45% fuel reduction can be achieved.


Author(s):  
K.M. Moiseeva ◽  
◽  
A.Yu. Krainov ◽  
E.I. Rozhkova ◽  
◽  
...  

Swirling combustion is currently one of the most important engineering problems in physics of combustion. There is a hypothesis on the increase in the combustion efficiency of reacting gas mixtures in combustion chambers with swirling flows, as well as on the increase in the efficiency of fuel combustion devices. In this paper, it is proposed to simulate a swirling flow by taking into account the angular component of the flow velocity. The aim of the study is to determine the effect of the angular component of the flow velocity on the characteristics of the flow and combustion of an air suspension of coal dust in a pipe. The problem is solved in a twodimensional axisymmetric approximation with allowance for a swirling flow. A physical and mathematical model is based on the approaches of the mechanics of multiphase reacting media. A solution method involves the arbitrary discontinuity decay algorithm. The impact of the flow swirl and the size of coal dust particles on the gas temperature distribution along the pipe is determined.


Author(s):  
Fengchao Li ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Ping Wu ◽  
Shiping Zhang

Oxygen molecules are paramagnetic while nitrogen molecules are diamagnetic. In the same gradient magnetic field, the magnetizing forces on oxygen molecules are stronger than those on nitrogen molecules, which in opposite directions. The intercepting effect on oxygen molecules by gradient magnetic field can be used for oxygen enrichment from air. The structure, which is called multi-channel cascading magnets array frame in the paper, are optimized by additional yokes. By comparison of distributions of magnetic field in multi-channel array without yokes and that with yokes, the additional yokes can eliminate the differences among different magnetic spaces in multi-channel cascading magnets’ arrays and enhances the magnetic flux densities in spaces. Joining magnets together in the length direction can make the air stay longer in the ‘magnetic sieve’ and raise the oxygen concentration of air flowing out from the optimized multi-channel cascading magnets’ arrays. The inside additional yoke can used to avoid the gradient magnetic field at the joints of the magnets and get near uniform magnetic field along length direction. The optimized multi-channel cascading magnets’ array frames can effectively promote the development of oxygen enrichment from air by “magnetic sieve”.


Author(s):  
Theodoros C. Zannis ◽  
Dimitrios T. Hountalas ◽  
Elias A. Yfantis ◽  
Roussos G. Papagiannakis ◽  
Yiannis A. Levendis

Increasing the in-cylinder oxygen availability of diesel engines is an effective method to improve combustion efficiency and to reduce particulate emissions. Past work on oxygen-enrichment of the intake air, revealed a large decrease of ignition delay, a remarkable decrease of soot emissions as well as reduction of CO and unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emissions while, brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) remained unaffected or even improved. Moreover, experiments conducted in the past by authors revealed that oxygen-enrichment of the intake air (from 21% to 25% oxygen mole fraction) under high fuelling rates resulted to an increase of brake power output by 10%. However, a considerable increase of NOx emissions was recorded. This manuscript, presents the results of a theoretical investigation that examines the effect of oxygen enrichment of intake air, up to 30%v/v, on the local combustion characteristics, soot and NO concentrations under the following two in-cylinder mixing conditions: (1) lean in-cylinder average fuel/oxygen equivalence ratio (constant fuelling rate) and (2) constant in-cylinder average fuel/oxygen equivalence ratio (increased fuelling rate). A phenomenological engine simulation model is used to shed light into the influence of the oxygen content of combustion air on the distribution of combustion parameters, soot and nitric oxide inside the fuel jet, in all cases considered. Simulations were made for a naturally aspirated single-cylinder DI diesel engine “Lister LV1” at 2500 rpm and at various engine loads. The outcome of this theoretical investigation was contrasted with published experimental findings.


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