Development of a catalytic combustor with heat exchanger

Abstract

Catalytic combustion is thought to be a considerable improvement on the traditional one under specific conditions. Due to its special features, catalytic combustion has two strong points compared to flame: no NOx emission and high reaction efficiency. However, the preheating process of catalytic combustion is an obstacle that deteriorates profitability in operation. So the HTHE (High Temperature Heat Exchanger) is adapted to the system to reinforce the preheating process, and we show that the catalytic combustion is maintained steadily without exceptional heat injection. As a result, the stability on the catalytic surface is the most important operational factor. To achieve it, both mixture gas property and temperature distribution should be controlled.