Investigation on Flame Characteristics and Burner Operability Issues of Oxy-Fuel Combustion
- Univ. Of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States)
Oxy-fuel combustion has been used previously in a wide range of industrial applications. Oxy- combustion is carried out by burning a hydrocarbon fuel with oxygen instead of air. Flames burning in this configuration achieve higher flame temperatures which present opportunities for significant efficiency improvements and direct capture of CO2 from the exhaust stream. In an effort to better understand and characterize the fundamental flame characteristics of oxy-fuel combustion this research presents the experimental measurements of flame stability of various oxyfuel flames. Effects of H2 concentration, fuel composition, exhaust gas recirculation ratio, firing inputs, and burner diameters on the flame stability of these fuels are discussed. Effects of exhaust gas recirculation i.e. CO2 and H2O (steam) acting as diluents on burner operability are also presented. The roles of firing input on flame stability are then analyzed. For this study it was observed that many oxy-flames did not stabilize without exhaust gas recirculation due to their higher burning velocities. In addition, the stability regime of all compositions was observed to decrease as the burner diameter increased. A flashback model is also presented, using the critical velocity gradient gF) values for CH4-O2-CO2 flames. The second part of the study focuses on the experimental measurements of the flow field characteristics of premixed CH4/21%O2/79%N2 and CH4/38%O2/72%CO2 mixtures at constant firing input of 7.5 kW, constant, equivalence ratio of 0.8, constant swirl number of 0.92 and constant Reynolds Numbers. These measurements were taken in a swirl stabilized combustor at atmospheric pressure. The flow field visualization using Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique is implemented to make a better understanding of the turbulence characteristics of CH4/air and CH4/38%O2/72%CO2 combustion. The velocity fluctuations, turbulence intensities and local propagation velocities along the combustion chamber have been determined. The turbulent intensities increase as we move away from the combustor axis. CH4-38%O2-72%CO2 flames have low radial velocity and turbulent intensity distributions at different axial distances when compared with CH4-Air flames.
- Research Organization:
- University Of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0002402
- OSTI ID:
- 1121734
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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