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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Nitrogen oxide abatement by distributed fuel addition. Quarterly report No. 9, August 1, 1989--October 31, 1989

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10109980· OSTI ID:10109980

Experiments were conducted to investigate the processes that influence the destruction of NO in the fuel rich stage of the reburning process. The objective is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that control the fate of coal nitrogen in the fuel rich zone of a combustion process. Time resolved profiles of temperature, major (CO{sub 2}, CO, H{sub 2}O, O{sub 2}, H{sub 2} and N{sub 2}), nitrogenous (NO, HCN and NH{sub 3}) and hydrocarbon (CH{sub 4} and C{sub 2}H{sub 2}) species were obtained for various reburning tests. A slow continuous source of HCN was observed in the reburn zone for most tests. HCN formation from NO + CH{sub i} reactions would partially explain this trend. It has been proposed in the past that these reactions would be fast (less than 0.1s) and the produced HCN would be short lived. However, evidence was provided in this study indicating that NO + CH{sub i} reactions might contribute to HCN formation at longer residence times in the reburn zone. Reactions of molecular nitrogen with hydrocarbon radicals were determined to be a significant source of HCN formation, especially as NO levels decreased in the reburn zone. The results of several tests would justify the exclusion of continued coal devolatilization in the reburn zone as a major source of HCN.

Research Organization:
Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC22-87PC79850
OSTI ID:
10109980
Report Number(s):
DOE/PC/79850--9; ON: DE92005211
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English