Combustion Research Facility Research Articles

Spontaneous Raman–LIF–CO–OH measurements of species concentration in turbulent spray flames

This paper presents new measurements of species concentrations, temperature and mixture fraction in selected regions of a turbulent ethanol spray flame. The line-Raman–LIF–COOH setup developed at the Sandia's Combustion Research Facility is utilised to probe regions of a spray flame where laser breakdown of liquid droplets is avoided and the remaining interferences can be corrected. The spray flame is stabilised on the piloted Sydney needle spray burner, where axial translation of the liquid injecting needle in the air-blast stream can transition the spray from dilute to dense. The solution to obtaining successful measurements is found to be multifaceted and includes: the appropriate selection of flame conditions; high sensitivity of the Raman detection system permitting reduced laser energies; development of a pre-processing algorithm to reject strong droplet interferences; and application of the hybrid matrix inversion method combined with wavelet denoising to account for interference corrections and noise at the very low signal levels obtained. Unique and necessary for the successful measurements reported in this paper, a pre-processing algorithm is outlined that removes data points corrupted with strong interferences from droplets. These interferences arise from a range of sources, but the most intense are due to the laser interaction with surrounding mist or liquid fragments, such that measurements near the jet centreline are corrupted and hence discarded. Reliable measurements of mixture fraction, temperature obtained from the sum of the species number densities, and species mole fractions are reported for regions in the flames sufficiently far from the centreline. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of the judicious use of Raman scattering in turbulent spray flames, the results of which will be extremely useful for validating numerical simulations.

A Validation/Uncertainty Quantification Analysis for a 1.5 MW Oxy-Coal Fired Furnace: Sensitivity Analysis

A validation/uncertainty quantification (VUQ) study was performed on the 1.5 MWth L1500 furnace, an oxy-coal fired facility located at the Industrial Combustion and Gasification Research Facility at the University of Utah. A six-step VUQ framework is used for studying the impact of model parameter uncertainty on heat flux, the quantity of interest (QOI) for the project. This paper focuses on the first two steps of the framework. The first step is the selection of model outputs in the experimental and simulation data that are related to the heat flux: incident heat flux, heat removal by cooling tubes, and wall temperatures. We describe the experimental facility, the operating conditions, and the data collection process. To obtain the simulation data, we utilized two tools, star-ccm+ and Arches. The star-ccm+ simulations captured flow through the complex geometry of the swirl burner while the Arches simulations captured multiphase reacting flow in the L1500. We employed a filtered handoff plane to couple the two simulations. In step two, we developed an input/uncertainty (I/U) map and assigned a priority to 11 model parameters based on prior knowledge. We included parameters from both a char oxidation model and an ash deposition model in this study. We reduced the active parameter space from 11 to 5 based on priority. To further reduce the number of parameters that must be considered in the remaining steps of the framework, we performed a sensitivity analysis on the five parameters and used the results to reduce the parameter set to two.

A Progress Review on Soot Experiments and Modeling in the Engine Combustion Network (ECN)

The following individuals and funding agencies are acknowledged for their support. The authors from DTU acknowledge the Technical University of Denmark, Danish Strategic Research Council, and MAN Diesel & Turbo University of Wisconsin: Financial support provided by the Princeton Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center. ETH Zurich: Financial support from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (grant no. SI/500818-01) and the Swiss Competence Center for Energy and Mobility (CCEM project “In-cylinder emission reduction”) is gratefully acknowledged. Argonne National Labs: Work was funded by U.S. DOE Office of Vehicle Technologies, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. We also gratefully acknowledge the computing resources provided on Fusion, a computing cluster operated by the Laboratory Computing Resource Center at Argonne National Laboratory. Sandia National Labs, Combustion Research Facility: Work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DEAC04-94AL85000. Chris Carlen and Dave Cicone are gratefully acknowledged for technical assistance. The authors from ANL and SNL also wish to thank Gurpreet Singh and Leo Breton, program managers at U.S. DOE, for their support.

An Experimental Study of Reduction NOx Emissions by Superfine Pulverized Coal Reburning

An experimental study was conducted of reduction of NOx emissions by superfine pulverized coal reburning in Combustion Research Facility (CRF). Based on the systemically measured temperature distributions and analyzed gas samples, the influence of the attention was paid to the superfine pulverized coal reburning characteristic such as NOx emissions, slag formation conditions and mechanical incomplete combustion losses. Experimental results show that feeding pulverized coal for reburning has little influence on the furnace combustion center and slag formation. However, an increase in mechanical incomplete combustion losses was observed in the experiment. In addition, it was shown that the emission of NOx decreased obviously and the reduction efficiency was in excess of 60% with particle size of reburning fuel of 30.74 μm and the proportion of reburned fuel of 14.84%.

BIGCO2 R&D Platform – Objectives and Achievements

The BIGCO2 R&D (BIGCO2) Platform is an international collaborative research project aiming at developing several enabling technologies and innovative solutions supporting a large-scale deployment of CO2 capture from power generation and underground storage of CO2. All main routes for CO2 capture are investigated. The project is coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research and the budget of the current project period (2007-2011) is 16 M€.BIGCO2 builds knowledge and technology underpinning demonstration of power generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) at industrial scale. The project aims at closing critical knowledge gaps in the CO2 chain to enable sustainable power generation from fossil fuels based on carbon capture and underground storage of CO2. BIGCO2 is unique in terms size, diversity, and the fact that it comprises the whole CO2 chain. The project includes extensive international collaborative effort bringing together expertise and research infrastructure of competent research institutes and universities, supported by leading vendors, energy companies, and oil and gas companies.This paper presents the structure, the original objectives and the achievements of BIGCO2. Further, for each research task, the results are analyzed in light of the objectives. Each task leader has analyzed the results in the following context of: originally stated objectives, results, and if the results meet the objectives.The purpose of BIGCO2 is to develop new knowledge to enable power generation with CCS. Tangible objectives are: 90% CO2 capture rate, 50% cost reduction, and a fuel-to-electricity penalty less than 7% compared with state-of-the-art power generation. Partners of the Consortium are: Statoil, GE Global Research, Statkraft, Aker Clean Carbon, Shell, TOTAL, ConocoPhillips, ALSTOM, DLR, TUM, NTNU, CICERO, SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, SINTEF Petroleum Research, and SINTEF Energy Research. The University of Oslo is a subcontractor to the project. Further, BIGCO2 benefits from a strong collaboration between the combustion research facility at Sandia National Laboratories (USA) and SINTEF Energy Research. The main sponsor of BIGCO2 is the Research Council of Norway, with considerable co-funding from the industry partners and Gassnova. The research challenges and approach are extensively presented in [1].

ENGINE COMBUSTION NETWORK (ECN): MEASUREMENTS OF NOZZLE GEOMETRY AND HYDRAULIC BEHAVIOR

The phase-contrast x-ray imaging was performed at the 32ID beamline of the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The work performed at Argonne and the use of the APS are supported by the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 and by the Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Program, with Gurpreet Singh as Team Leader. Sandia National Laboratories research was also supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Program. Measurements were performed at the Combustion Research Facility in Livermore, California. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract NoDE-AC04-94AL85000.

Oxygen Compatibility of Brass-Filled PTFE Compared to Commonly Used Fluorinated Polymers for Oxygen Systems

Abstract Safe and reliable seal materials for high-pressure oxygen systems sometimes appear to be extinct species when sought out by oxygen systems designers. Materials that seal well are easy to find, but these materials are typically incompatible with oxygen, especially in cryogenic liquid form. This incompatibility can result in seals that leak, or much worse, seals that easily ignite and burn during use. Scientists at the Materials Combustion Research Facility (MCRF), part of NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, are constantly searching for better materials and processes to improve the safety of oxygen systems. One focus of this effort is improving the characteristics of polymers used in the presence of an oxygen enriched environment. Very few systems can be built which contain no polymeric materials; therefore, materials which have good impact resistance, low heat of combustion, high auto-ignition temperature, and those that maintain good mechanical properties are essential. The scientists and engineers at the MCRF, in cooperation with seal suppliers, are currently testing a new formulation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with brass filler. This brass-filled PTFE is showing great promise as a seal and seat material for high-pressure oxygen systems. Early research has demonstrated very encouraging results, which could rank this material as one of the best fluorinated polymers ever tested. This paper will compare the data obtained for brass-filled PTFE with other fluorinated polymers, such as TFE-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polychlorotrifluoroethylene 81, Viton® A, Viton® A-500, Fluorel®, and Algoflon®. A similar metal-filled fluorinated polymer, Salox-M®, was tested in comparison to brass-filled PTFE to demonstrate the importance of the metal chosen and relative percentage of filler. General conclusions on the oxygen compatibility of this formulation are drawn, with an emphasis on comparing and contrasting the materials performance to the performance of the current state-of-the-art oxygen compatible polymers.

Investigation of Fuel Effects on Dilute, Mixing-Controlled Combustion in an Optical Direct-Injection Diesel Engine

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVAdditions and Correc...Additions and CorrectionsORIGINAL ARTICLEThis notice is a correctionInvestigation of Fuel Effects on Dilute, Mixing-Controlled Combustion in an Optical Direct-Injection Diesel EngineA. S. (Ed) Cheng, Ansis Upatnieks, and Charles J. MuellerView Author Information School of Engineering, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California 94132, and Combustion Research Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550Cite this: Energy Fuels 2007, 21, 6, 3750Publication Date (Web):October 25, 2007Publication History Received19 September 2007Accepted21 September 2007Published online25 October 2007Published inissue 1 November 2007https://doi.org/10.1021/ef7005639Copyright © 2007 American Chemical SocietyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views261Altmetric-Citations3LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (18 KB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Chemiluminescence,Fluxes,Materials,Particulate matter,Redox reactions Get e-Alerts

An investigation of mercury distribution and speciation during coal combustion

A multi-field electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and a two-stage condensing heat exchanger (CHX ®) have been added to the pilot scale Vertical Combustion Research Facility (VCRF) in CETC-O to further research into integrated emissions control for coal fired power plants. A series of combustion trials were conducted on the VCRF with three different coals (bituminous, sub-bituminous and lignite) to study mercury distribution and speciation at various VCRF locations. Results showed that, with the bituminous coal, as the flue gas cools down from 700 to 200 °C, 80% of total mercury in the gas phase existed in oxidized form and 20% in elemental form. For sub-bituminous and lignite coals, elemental mercury was the dominant form throughout the system. Analysis of deposited ash samples showed that oxidized mercury can be absorbed on carbon-rich ash deposits, although overall only a very small percentage of total mercury was absorbed on the ash. The potential of the CHX ® at removing mercury from the flue gas was also explored. Results indicated that, using wet scrubbing, the CHX ® was able to remove 98% of oxidized mercury. Though elemental mercury went through the system unabated, it is suggested that, with appropriate agent to oxidize elemental mercury in the CHX ®, it is conceivable to use CHX ® to remove both oxidized and elemental mercury. Finally, mercury balance was performed and good mercury balance was obtained across the VCRF, validating our sampling procedures and analysis methods.

Co-firing of coal and cattle feedlot biomass (FB) Fuels, Part III: fouling results from a 500,000 BTU/h pilot plant scale boiler burner ☆

Part I of the paper presented a methodology for fuel collection, fuel characteristics of the FB, its relation to ration fed, and the change in fuel characteristics and volatile oxides due to composting. The bench scale experiments with 30 kW t (100,000 BTU/h) facility revealed better combustion for coal: FB blends (90:10) than for coal alone and the NO x emission were slightly less with the blend (Part II). Part III concerns with larger-scale (pilot plant) experiments conducted at the 150 kW t (150,0000 BTU/h) Combustion and Environmental Research Facility (CERF) of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Only fouling part of the results are reported in part III. The 90:10 coal:FB blend resulted in almost twice the ash output compared to coal and ash deposits on heat exchanger tubes that were more difficult to remove than baseline coal ash deposits. The increased fouling behavior with blend is probably due to the higher ash loading and ash composition of FB.

E306 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON PERFORMANCE OF COMBUSTION AND NO EMISSION FOR LOW VOLATILIZATION COALS

Low-volatile coals, such as anthracite and lean coal, are widely used for more and more high capacity utility boilers in China. In the paper, performances of combustion were determined by TGA and experiments in a pilot combustion research facility (CRF) were used in this work to assess performances of NO emissions and the burnout of the two single coals and their binary coal blends (the blending ratios are 1 : 3,1 : 1,3 : 1). The aim of study was to investigate the different combustion performance between the two low-volatile coals and get the combustion performance of the binary coals, with a view to understanding the contributing factors of NO_x emission and the relationship between NO_x emission and burnout performance of the coal blends in mechanism. The experimental results showed excess air ratio was one important factor to affect the amount of emitting NO_x and burnout performance. NO_x emission was occurred mainly in the prophase during the process of combustion. The coal blends like the single one that NO_x concentration along the axis of furnace had one peak value. The char-N was the main attribute to the NO_x emission of the low volatile coals.

석유화학 공정부산물의 연소특성에 대한 연구

Combustion stability is one of the most important factors that must be considered in burning of heavy fuel oil, especially low-grade oil. This paper describes the combustion characteristics of petrochemical process by- product in the combustion furnace of heavy fuel oil. Main experimental parameters were combustion load, excess 02, fuel preheating temperature and air/fuel ratio. The capacity of CRF(combustion research facility) used in this study was 1.0 ton/hr and the burner is steam jet type suitable far heavy oil combustion and manufactured by UNIGAS in Italy. The fuel used in this experiment were 0.5 B-C, petrochemical process by-product and 3 kinds of 0.5 B-C/process by-product mixtures. The combustion stability was monitored and exhaust gases such as CO, NOx, SOx and particulates were measured with the excess and combustion load. The main purpose of this study is to clarify whether process by-product can be used as a boiler fuel or not in consideration of flame stability and emission properties.

Newly Developed Direct-Connect High-Enthalpy Supersonic Combustion Research Facility

Anew continuous-e ow,direct-connect,high-enthalpy, supersonic combustion researchfacility isdescribed. This test facility provides combustor inlet e ow conditions corresponding to e ight Mach numbers between 3.5 and 7, at dynamic pressures up to 95.8 kPa. Most of the major components of the new facility are water cooled (including the vitiated heater, the instrumentation and transition sections, and the facility nozzle and isolators ); the current exception is the variable-geometry heat-sink combustor. A variety of conventional and advanced instrumentation, including a steam calorimeter and a thrust stand, exists for accurate documentation of combustor inlet and exit conditions and performance parameters. In a recent calibration effort, pitot pressure surveys, total temperature surveys, and wall static pressure distributions were obtained for a wide range of inlet conditions using Mach 1.8 and 2.2 facility nozzles. In addition, three-dimensional numerical simulations of each test case were completed. Results from thecomputations compare favorably with experimental results for all cases and yield estimates of the integral boundary-layer properties at the isolator exit.

Semipilot plant pulse energized cold-precharger electrostatic precipitator tests for collection of moderately high resistivity flyash particles

The performance of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) to collect moderately high resistivity flyash has been tested under pulse/precharger energization using the semipilot scale integrated electrostatics combustion flue gas (IECFG) cleaning system at Ontario Hydro's 640 MJ/h Combustion Research Facility Center. The pulse energization enhanced the performance of the existing de-energized wire-plate electrostatic precipitator in collecting moderately high resistivity (/spl rho//spl sim/10/sup 10/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm) flyash. A 26% improvement in particle collection efficiency and 30% energy saving were obtained with pulse energization, with moderately high resistivity flyash generated by burning high-sulfur (3.7%) Nova Scotia coal with limestone conditioning. The cold precharger specially designed to suit the three-stage wire-plate ESP has also been tested for its ability to improve the performance of ESP in reducing the back corona. With an additional 30% of energy supplied to the precharger it was possible to obtain up to 40% enhancement in collection efficiency. In general an enhancement factor of 1.8-2.8 was obtained with dust loading /spl sim/2 g/m/sup 3/. A thyratron switched pulse power supply was used for the ESP.

New supersonic combustion research facility

New supersonic combustion research facility

Monitoring of PAC Concentrations in Semi-Industrial Scale Turbulent Diffusion Flames by Laser Induced Fluorescence

Abstract In situ LIF measurements of PAC concentrations were made in fuel rich natural gas flames, in the semi industrial scale MIT Combustion Research Facility. LIF measurements had been made in the past, but LIF had not been applied for monitoring of industrial scale combustion systems. An argon ion laser, operated at 488 nm, and narrow angle detection optics, were employed for the LIF experiments. The LIF emission spectra obtained, were found to be similar for the various flames tested. A correlation was established, between the LIF signal intensity and the concentration of PACs, determined by chemical analysis of physical samples from the flames. Measurements of pure PACs in the gas phase at elevated temperatures in nitrogen, using a batch cell, showed that the LIF emission is strongest from high molecular weight PACs (e.g. coronene), and that their fluorescence emission spectra are similar to those from flames.

Prediction of fly ash size and chemical composition distributions: The random coalescence model

In the course of combustion of pulverized coal, the coal minerals partially coalesce to form fly ash upon the complete burnout of the combustible matter. The probability of a fly ash particle impacting an obstacle in the flow e.g. heat exchange surface, depends largely on its size, and its retention in a deposit upon the chemical composition. The Random Coalescence Model (RCM) is an essential part of an overall model that follows the coal mineral matter transformation to deposit formation. Computer Controlled Scanning Electron Microscopy (CCSEM) of the size and chemical composition distributions of the mineral inclusions in the coal and analysis of the ion-exchangeable minerals form the inputs to the RCM calculations. A coal char combustion model provides limits for the coalescence of mineral inclusions as the char surface recedes during combustion. The calculation proceeds through steps determining the most probable values for the coal mineral size and chemical composition and the mean values and variants of the resultant fly ash size and chemical composition distributions. Experiments carried out with a Wyoming lignite in the pilot scale MIT Combustion Research Facility gave good agreement with results of the RCM calculations predicting the fly ash size and chemical composition distributions when CCSEM data of the coal minerals were used as input to the model.

Low NO x emission from radially stratified natural gas-air turbulent diffusion flames

Research oriented to establish principles of design and operation of an ultra-low-NO x burner is discussed. Gradual admixing of the burner air with the centrally injected fuel is achieved by radial stratification of the flame. This radial fuel stratification is brought about by a combination of the swirling air flow and strong positive radial density gradients in the flame. A burner capable of varying the radial distributions of the burner airflow and recirculated flue gas, and of their swirl velocities has been used to realize the idea of radial fuel stratification in experimental flames using the flame tunnel of the MIT Combustion Research Facility. Distributions of gas velocities, temperatures and major chemical species concentrations determined in one megawatt (thermal) input natural gas-air turbulent diffusion flames show high fuel concentrations on the axis of the flames and demonstrate that fuel stratification is effective in reducing NO x emission without increasing trace emissions of combustibles. The effects of stratification are manifested in two ways: firstly, they improve combustion air staging by increasing fuel residence time in the pyrolysis flame zone, and secondly, permit increased amounts of flue gas to be recirculated through the burner without an impairment of the flame stability. The NO x emission at 3% O 2 reached with radial flame stratification but without flue gas recirculation was 70 ppm (56 ppm CO), and 15 ppm (<10 ppm CO) was achieved when 32% of the flue gas was recirculated through the burner.

Proposed User Fees for Federal Research Labs Draw Strong Criticism

Congress has expressed more than some interest in the idea and President Bush included it in his national energy strategy, but research administrators who would have to implement user fees at Department of Energy research facilities have roundly criticized the idea as unworkable and counterproductive. In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, Congress directed DOE to conduct a study to determine how it might recover reasonable operational costs from nonproprietary users and fair market values from proprietary users of its research facilities. These include DOE's seven major facilities—the National Synchrotron Light Source and the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory; the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory; the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia-Livermore; the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory; and the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laborator...

The SITE Demonstration of the American Combustion Pyretron Oxygen-enhanced Burner

A demonstration of the American Combustion Pyretron ™ oxygen-enhanced burner was conducted under the Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) program. The Demonstration was conducted at the U.S. EPA’s Combustion Research Facility (CRF) in Jefferson, Arkansas. An eight week test series was conducted which involved burning a mixture of listed waste KO87 with contaminated soil from the Stringfellow Acid Pits under both oxygen enhancement and air-only conditions. Performance under both modes of operation was compared. Results show that the Pyretron operating with oxygen enhancement could meet RCRA emissions limitations at a throughput rate double that for air-only operation. Scrubber liquor and kiln ash from these tests contained no detectable levels of contaminants from either waste stream.