Numerical study of the O2/CO2, O2/CO2/N2, and O2/N2-syngas MILD combustion: Effects of oxidant temperature, O2 mole fraction, and fuel blends

Abstract

Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion of a syngas fuel under air-fuel, oxygen-enhanced, and oxy-fuel condition are numerically studied with using counterflow diffusion flame. Fuel composition, temperature of oxidant (Tox), and oxygen mole fraction (XO2) are selected as the main parameters. Fake species (FCO2) with the same CO2 physical properties is used for separation the physical and chemical effects of replacing CO2 with N2. According to the results, under the high preheating temperatures, the chemical effect of changing the oxidant composition from N2 to CO2 is the main reason of the changes in flame structure, ignition delay time (IDT) and heat release rate (HRR) while physical differences play a more prominent role in the low preheating temperature MILD combustion. In all XO2, the physical and chemical effects of replacing CO2 with N2 have almost the same role on the maximum flame temperature. The results of IDT expressed that chemical discrepancies of CO2 and N2 play a key role on IDT enhancement by increasing CO2 in the oxidant composition. The sensitivity analysis of CH2O for variations of Tox and XO2 shows that reactions R54, R56, R58, and R101 are the main responsible of lower HRR and higher IDT by moving from air-syngas to oxy-fuel MILD combustion.