Pure ammonia flames with high thermal intensities through fuel and air staging under extreme rich-to-lean conditions

Abstract

Ammonia combustion has gained significant attention due to its high hydrogen content and zero carbon emissions. It poses a challenge for stabilization due to their low energy content and limited flammability range, with the added concern of fuel NOx emissions. In the current study, a novel burner design equipped with four series of reactors is proposed to achieve stable pure ammonia-air flames with reduced NOx emissions. The impact of thermal intensity (∼0.7 MW/m3 to ∼4 MW/m3), number of stages, equivalence ratio (0.5–1.2), and fuel staging on flame stabilization and emissions were investigated in the proposed burner. Comprehensive emissions analysis is performed at various burner levels. Numerical simulations incorporating Large Eddy Simulation (LES) modeling are employed to enhance understanding of the impact of thermal intensity and equivalence ratios on ammonia dissociation, mixedness, and NO emissions. The results indicated that the present burner design improved reactant mixing, and flame stability, reduced NH3 emissions (∼ 0 PPM), and lowered NOx levels in non-premixed ammonia-air flames. The computational and experimental results demonstrated that the implementation of fuel staging is crucial for reducing NOx emissions for the flames with lean global equivalence ratios. Lower NO emissions were identified at a global equivalence ratio of 1.1 for all the considered flames in the range of 0.5–1.2. In the four-stage rich-lean combustion strategy employed in this study; it was observed that higher thermal intensity (4 MW/m3) with fuel staging resulted in lower NOx emissions per kW of energy input compared to lower thermal intensities 0.7 MW/m3. This finding underscores the significance of achieving uniform mixtures and ensuring local flame in rich conditions for achieving low NOx emissions in ammonia combustion. Exhaust gas analysis is conducted at three stages of the burner to enhance the understanding of emissions at various levels of the burner. The proposed combustor design has achieved a substantial reduction in NOx to ∼1 PPM/kW and ∼2.8 PPM/kW with and without fuel staging, respectively. This impressive outcome is attributed to the controlled ammonia consumption facilitated by uniform mixing generated through the use of tangential air inlets.