Advancing natural gas combustion science and technology - low NOx. Annual report, June 1990-June 1991

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5790168

Correa, S M; Gemmer, R V

Preliminary results of bench-scale research on lean premixed combustion of methane at gas-turbine conditions are described. The goal is to develop understanding of the ultra-lean high pressure combustion regime, leading to sub-10 ppm NOx at > 50% thermodynamic efficiency in combined cycle gas-turbines. The results include: (1) Measurements of NOx and CO in a lean premixed 5 cm. dia. perforated-plate burner in the range 3-10 atm, inlet temperature 300-615K, and equivalence ratio 0.5 - 0.8. Good comparison is obtained with a stirred/plug flow reactor model. NOx is produced by the thermal sub-mechanism above 1850K or so, and by the prompt and nitrous oxide sub-mechanisms below 1750K or so; at the latter conditions NOx formation is slow enough to decouple from the turbulence. NOx is also independent of pressure in lean enough flames; (2) Analyses indicate that post-flame gas flow over cooled 1100K combustor walls, turbulent mixing of post-flame gas with dilution jets at compressor discharge temperature, and interaction with pressure oscillations in post-flame gas, cannot in general quench CO; and (3) The Discrete Vortex Method for unsteady (shedding) flows has been reformulated for lean premixed combustion in axisymmetric burners. A 15 cm. burner facility has been readied for the supporting experiments at very lean conditions approaching blowoff.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Schenectady, NY (United States). Research and Development Center
• OSTI ID: 5790168
• Report Number(s): PB-92-137652/XAB; CNN: GRI-5089-260-1912
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030700 -- Natural Gas-- Waste Management
034000* -- Natural Gas-- Combustion
AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
ALKANES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BURNERS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBINED CYCLES
COMBUSTION CONTROL
COMBUSTION KINETICS
COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
CONTROL
EFFICIENCY
EQUIPMENT
FLUID FLOW
FUEL-AIR RATIO
GAS TURBINES
HYDROCARBONS
INDUSTRY
KINETICS
MACHINERY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METHANE
NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN OXIDES
NITROUS OXIDE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
REACTION KINETICS
TEMPERATURE RANGE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
TEMPERATURE RANGE 1000-4000 K
THERMAL EFFICIENCY
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES
THERMODYNAMICS
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
TURBULENT FLOW