Experimental and modeling study on the auto-ignition properties of ammonia/methane mixtures at elevated pressures

Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) is considered as a promising carbon free energy carrier for energy and transportation systems. However, its low flammability and high NOx emission potential inhibit the implementation of pure NH3 in these systems. On the other hand, methane is a favorable low emission fuel that can be used as a co-firing fuel in ammonia combustion to promote the reactivity and control the emission levels. However, knowledge of the ignition properties of NH3/CH4 mixtures at intermediate temperatures and elevated pressures is still scarce. This study reports ignition delay times of NH3/CH4/O2 mixtures diluted in Ar or Ar/N2 over a temperature range of 900–1100 K, pressures of 20 and 40 bar, and equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. The results demonstrate that a higher CH4 mole fraction in the fuel mixture increases its reactivity, and that the reactivity decreases with increasing the fuel-oxygen equivalence ratio. The most recent mechanisms of Glarborg et al. (2018) and Li et al. (2019) were compared against the experimental data for validation purposes. Both mechanisms can predict the measurements fairly well, and key elementary reactions applied in both mechanisms were compared. A modified mechanism is provided, which can reproduce the measurements with smaller discrepancies in most cases. Detailed modeling for emissions indicated that adding CH4 to the fuel mixture increases the emission of NOx.