Investigation on Flame Characteristics and Burner Operability Issues of Oxy-Fuel Combustion

Abstract

Oxy-fuel combustion has been used previously in a wide range of industrial applications. Oxy- combustion is carried out by burning a hydrocarbon fuel with oxygen instead of air. Flames burning in this configuration achieve higher flame temperatures which present opportunities for significant efficiency improvements and direct capture of CO{sub 2} from the exhaust stream. In an effort to better understand and characterize the fundamental flame characteristics of oxy-fuel combustion this research presents the experimental measurements of flame stability of various oxyfuel flames. Effects of H{sub 2} concentration, fuel composition, exhaust gas recirculation ratio, firing inputs, and burner diameters on the flame stability of these fuels are discussed. Effects of exhaust gas recirculation i.e. CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O (steam) acting as diluents on burner operability are also presented. The roles of firing input on flame stability are then analyzed. For this study it was observed that many oxy-flames did not stabilize without exhaust gas recirculation due to their higher burning velocities. In addition, the stability regime of all compositions was observed to decrease as the burner diameter increased. A flashback model is also presented, using the critical velocity gradient g{sub F}) values for CH{sub 4}-O{sub 2}-CO{sub 2} flames. The scaling relation (𝐠{sub F} = 𝐜 𝐒{sub 𝐋}{sup 2}/𝛂) for different burner diameters was obtained for various diameter burners. The report shows that results correlated linearly with a scaling value of c =0.0174. The second part of the study focuses on the experimental measurements of the flow field characteristics of premixed CH{sub 4}/21%O{sub 2}/79%N{sub 2} and CH{sub 4}/38%O{sub 2}/72%CO{sub 2} mixtures at constant firing input of 7.5 kW, constant, equivalence ratio of 0.8, constant swirl number of 0.92 and constant Reynolds Numbers. These measurements were taken in a swirl stabilized combustor at atmospheric pressure. The flow field visualization using Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique is implemented to make a better understanding of the turbulence characteristics of CH{sub 4}/air and CH{sub 4}/38%O{sub 2}/72%CO{sub 2} combustion. The velocity fluctuations, turbulence intensities and local propagation velocities along the combustion chamber have been determined. The turbulent intensities increase as we move away from the combustor axis. CH{sub 4}-38%O{sub 2}-72%CO{sub 2} flames have low radial velocity and turbulent intensity distributions at different axial distances when compared with CH{sub 4}-Air flames.