Regenerative furnace simulation under flameless combustion regime with natural gas and syngas

Abstract

The increase in pollutant emissions has generated the development of clean technologies and encouraged the use of alternative fuels like syngas. Flameless combustion is one of the most promising clean technologies due to lower pollutants emissions and high thermal efficiency. In the present study, regenerative furnace simulation under flameless combustion was carried out using a fuel mixture of 70% natural gas and 30% syngas with high H2 content (in vol.); by mean of CFD approach. A symmetrical mesh with 405,632 hexahedral cells was used in the calculations. The κ-ε standard, discrete ordinates and Eddy Dissipation Concept models were used for physical phenomena of turbulence, radiation and turbulence - chemistry interaction, respectively. The combustion chambers thermal uniformity factor was 0.3 and 0.1 for vertical and horizontal planes, respectively. The results confirm that it is possible to achieve the flameless combustion regime in a regenerative furnace using the addition of syngas, preserving the temperature and reaction zone uniformity.