TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental and numerical study of product gas characteristics of ammonia/air premixed laminar flames stabilized in a stagnation flow
AU - Hayakawa, Akihiro
AU - Hirano, Yuta
AU - Okafor, Ekenechukwu C.
AU - Yamashita, Hirofumi
AU - Kudo, Taku
AU - Kobayashi, Hideaki
N1 - Funding Information:
The part of this study was supported by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI), the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), ``Energy carriers'' (funding agency: The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)) and the collaborative research project of the Institute of Fluid Science of Tohoku University. We also acknowledge Best Instruments Co., Ltd. for the help and kind development support for the dilution sampling method.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Combustion Institute
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Ammonia has widely attracted interest as a potential candidate not only as a hydrogen energy carrier but also as a carbon free fuel for internal combustion engines, such as gas turbines. Because ammonia contains a nitrogen atom in its molecule, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants may be formed when it burns. Therefore, understanding the fundamental product gas characteristics of ammonia/air laminar flames is important for the design of ammonia-fueled combustors to meet stringent emission regulations. In this study, the product gas characteristics of ammonia/air premixed laminar flames for various equivalence ratios were experimentally and numerically investigated up to elevated pressure conditions. In the experiments, a stagnation flame configuration was employed because an ammonia flame can be stabilized by using such a configuration without a pilot flame. The experimental results showed that the maximum NO mole fraction was about 3,500 ppmv, at an equivalence ratio of 0.9 at 0.1 MPa. The NO mole fraction decreased as the equivalence ratio increased. In addition, the maximum value of the NO mole fraction decreased with an increase in mixture pressure. Furthermore, it was experimentally clarified that the simultaneous reduction of NO and unburnt ammonia can be achieved at an equivalence ratio of about 1.06, which is the target equivalence ratio for emission control in rich-lean two-stage ammonia combustors. Comparison of experimental and numerical results showed that even though the reaction mechanisms employed have been optimized for predicting the laminar burning velocity of ammonia/air flames, they failed to satisfactorily predict the measured species in this study. Sensitivity analysis was used to identify elementary reactions that control the species profiles but have negligible effects on the burning velocity. It is considered that these reaction models need to be updated for accurate prediction of product gas characteristics of ammonia/air flames.
AB - Ammonia has widely attracted interest as a potential candidate not only as a hydrogen energy carrier but also as a carbon free fuel for internal combustion engines, such as gas turbines. Because ammonia contains a nitrogen atom in its molecule, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants may be formed when it burns. Therefore, understanding the fundamental product gas characteristics of ammonia/air laminar flames is important for the design of ammonia-fueled combustors to meet stringent emission regulations. In this study, the product gas characteristics of ammonia/air premixed laminar flames for various equivalence ratios were experimentally and numerically investigated up to elevated pressure conditions. In the experiments, a stagnation flame configuration was employed because an ammonia flame can be stabilized by using such a configuration without a pilot flame. The experimental results showed that the maximum NO mole fraction was about 3,500 ppmv, at an equivalence ratio of 0.9 at 0.1 MPa. The NO mole fraction decreased as the equivalence ratio increased. In addition, the maximum value of the NO mole fraction decreased with an increase in mixture pressure. Furthermore, it was experimentally clarified that the simultaneous reduction of NO and unburnt ammonia can be achieved at an equivalence ratio of about 1.06, which is the target equivalence ratio for emission control in rich-lean two-stage ammonia combustors. Comparison of experimental and numerical results showed that even though the reaction mechanisms employed have been optimized for predicting the laminar burning velocity of ammonia/air flames, they failed to satisfactorily predict the measured species in this study. Sensitivity analysis was used to identify elementary reactions that control the species profiles but have negligible effects on the burning velocity. It is considered that these reaction models need to be updated for accurate prediction of product gas characteristics of ammonia/air flames.
KW - Ammonia
KW - Experiment
KW - Gas sampling
KW - Premixed laminar flames
KW - Product gas
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U2 - 10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.030
DO - 10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090441869
VL - 38
SP - 2409
EP - 2417
JO - Proceedings of the Combustion Institute
JF - Proceedings of the Combustion Institute
SN - 1540-7489
IS - 2
ER -