Uncertainty quantification of the premixed combustion characteristics of NH3/H2/N2 fuel blends

Green ammonia is a candidate fuel to decarbonise shipping and other industries. However, ammonia features a lower reactivity compared to conventional fuels and is therefore difficult to burn. To resolve this issue, thermo-catalytic cracking of ammonia using waste heat is often employed to produce NH₃/H₂/N₂ blends as fuel. However, on-site operational variations in this process can become sources of uncertainty in the fuel composition, causing randomness of the flame's physicochemical properties and challenging flame stability. In the present work, a surrogate model is built using the polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) method to investigate the impact of fuel composition variability on combustion characteristics at different operating conditions. Impacts of 1.5% deviation in the fuel composition on the flame properties for different initial pressures (P_i) and unburnt fuel temperatures (T_u) are investigated for a wide range of equivalence ratios covering lean and rich mixtures. The uncertainty effects defined by the coefficient of variation (COV) fluctuate for equivalence ratios greater than 1.1, while no fluctuation is observed in COV for near stoichiometric combustion conditions. It is shown that H₂ variation in the fuel blend has the strongest effect (over 80%) on the uncertainty of all investigated physicochemical properties of the flame. The least affected property is the adiabatic flame temperature with variations of about 2.5% in richer fuel conditions. The results further show that preheating of the reactants can significantly reduce the COV of laminar flame speed. The consequences of these uncertainties upon different combustion technologies are then discussed and it is argued that moderate and intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) and colourless distributed combustion (CDC) technology may remain resilient.     

Combustion features of CH4/NH3/H2 ternary blends

The use of so-called “green” hydrogen for decarbonisation of the energy and propulsion sectors has attracted considerable attention over the last couple of decades. Although advancements are achieved, hydrogen still presents some constraints when used directly in power systems such as gas turbines. Therefore, another vector such as ammonia can serve as a chemical to transport and distribute green hydrogen whilst its use in gas turbines can limit combustion reactivity compared to hydrogen for better operability. However, pure ammonia on its own shows slow, complex reaction kinetics which requires its doping by more reactive molecules, thus ensuring greater flame stability. It is expected that in forthcoming years, ammonia will replace natural gas (with ^～90% methane in volume) in power and heat production units, thus making the co-firing of ammonia/methane a clear path towards replacement of CH₄ as fossil fuel. Hydrogen can be obtained from the pre-cracking of ammonia, thus denoting a clear path towards decarbonisation by the use of ammonia/hydrogen blends. Therefore, ammonia/methane/hydrogen might be co-fired at some stage in current combustion units, hence requiring a more intrinsic analysis of the stability, emissions and flame features that these ternary blends produce. In return, this will ensure that transition from natural gas to renewable energy generated e-fuels such as so-called “green” hydrogen and ammonia is accomplished with minor detrimentals towards equipment and processes. For this reason, this work presents the analysis of combustion properties of ammonia/methane/hydrogen blends at different concentrations. A generic tangential swirl burner was employed at constant power and various equivalence ratios. Emissions, OH1/NH1/NH₂1/CH1 chemiluminescence, operability maps and spectral signatures were obtained and are discussed. The extinction behaviour has also been investigated for strained laminar premixed flames. Overall, the change from fossils to e-fuels is led by the shift in reactivity of radicals such as OH, CH, CN and NH₂, with an increase of emissions under low and high ammonia content. Simultaneously, hydrogen addition improves operability when injected up to 30% (vol), an amount at which the hydrogen starts governing the reactivity of the blends. Extinction strain rates confirm phenomena found in the experiments, with high ammonia blends showing large discrepancies between values at different hydrogen contents. Finally, a 20/55/25% (vol) methane/ammonia/hydrogen blend seems to be the most promising at high equivalence ratios (1.2), with no apparent flashback, low emissions and moderate formation of NH₂/OH radicals for good operability.     

Numerical study of hydrogen addition to DME/CH4 dual fuel RCCI engine

In this study, the effect of hydrogen addition to DME/CH₄ dual-fuel RCCI (Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition) engine is investigated using three dimensional calculations coupled with chemical kinetics. A new reduced DME (Dimethyl Ether) oxidation mechanism is proposed in this study. With the addition of H₂, the ignition time is advanced and the peak cylinder pressure is increased. The addition of hydrogen has a greater effect on the beginning stage of combustion than the later stages of combustion. The CH₄ emission is reduced with the addition of H₂. However, as the flame does not propagate throughout the charge, the CH₄ emission is still high. The CO emission is reduced and most of the remaining CO is produced by the combustion of the premixed CH₄. With the addition of hydrogen, NO emission is increased. The simulation shows that the final NOx emissions are significantly determined by the injection strategy and quantity of the pilot fuel during dual fuel operation conditions.     

Effect of nitrogen on deflagration characteristics of hydrogen / methane mixture

In order to study the influence of nitrogen on the deflagration characteristics of premixed hydrogen/methane, the explosion parameters of premixed hydrogen/methane within various volume ratios and different dilution ratios were studied by using a spherical flame method at room temperature and pressure. The results are as follows: The addition of nitrogen makes the upper limit of explosion of hydrogen/methane premixed gas drop, and the lower limit rises. For explosion hazard (F-number), hydrogen/methane premixed fuel with a hydrogen addition ratio of 10% has the lowest risk, and nitrogen has a greater impact on the dangerous degree of hydrogen and methane premixed gas whose hydrogen addition ratio does not exceed 30%. In terms of flame structure, the spherical flame was affected by buoyancy instability as the percentage of nitrogen dilution increased, but the buoyancy instability gradually decreased as the percentage of hydrogen addition increased. The addition of diluent gas reduces the spreading speed of the stretching flame and reduces the stretching rate in the initial stage of flame development. The laminar flame propagation velocity calculated by the experiment in this paper is consistent with the laminar flow velocity of the hydrogen/methane premixed gas calculated by GRI Mech 3.0. Considering the explosion parameters such as flammability limit, laminar combustion rate and deflagration index, when hydrogen is added to 70%, it is the turning point of hydrogen/methane premixed fuel.     

Comparison of the combustion and emission characteristics of NH3/NH4NO2 and NH3/H2 in a two-stroke low speed marine engine

As a marine engine fuel of great concern, ammonia needs to be mixed with another high reactive fuel to improve its combustion performance. In this work, the combustion performance of NH₃/NH₄NO₂ and NH₃/H₂ was compared under different boundary conditions (excess air coefficient, initial temperature, pressure and mixing ratio). The numerical simulation of compression combustion is carried out under different power loads. The addition of ammonium nitrite decreases the ignition requirement of ammonia and shortens the ignition delay time of the mixture fuel. The boundary conditions of compression ignition can be reduced by mixing hydrogen and mixing ammonium nitrite, but it is not enough to achieve compression ignition under NH₃/H₂ mode. The addition of 30% ammonium nitrite can reduce the intake temperature to 300–360 K, which makes the compression ignition of the mixed fuel feasible. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the high in-cylinder combustion pressure and improve the combustion performance of the mixed fuel, the fuel injection strategy was proposed to achieve constant combustion pressure of 30 MPa under the premise of less power loss, which is a potential solution for the combustion of ammonia fuel.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on the forced response of H2/CH4 flames in a dual-nozzle swirl-stabilized combustor

The effects of hydrogen addition on the forced response of H₂/CH₄ flames are analyzed in a dual-nozzle swirl-stabilized combustor. The hydrogen volumetric content in the fuel is varied from 0% to 40%. Flame transfer function (FTF) is used to compare the forced response of the flames. The FTF gain featuring the local maximum and minimum values, which occurred commonly in the FTFs under all hydrogen contents, is determined by two different mechanisms: the change in the flame angle and the flame roll-up phenomenon. Among two mechanisms, the flame roll-up phenomenon has a more important role in determining the FTF characteristics. In addition, hydrogen addition attenuates the local maximum gains and decreases the FTF phase slope. The change in the flame roll-up behavior, which is induced by a short and compact flame distribution at high hydrogen contents, is the primary reason of these differences in the FTF.     

Turbulent combustion evolution of stoichiometric H2/CH4/air mixtures within a spherical space

Turbulent combustion evolutions of stoichiometric H₂/CH₄/air mixtures were experimentally studied within a spherical constant-volume combustion vessel. A series of initial turbulent ambience (with the range of turbulence intensity from 0 to 1.309 m/s) and a series of hydrogen volumetric fraction (with the range from 0.3 to 0.9) were taken as the variables to studied the influences of turbulence intensity and the fuel composition on the turbulent combustion evolutions. The evolutions of explosion overpressure were studied upon the variations of maximal pressure, the influences of turbulence intensity mainly located at heat loss while the influences of fuel composition mainly located at adiabatic explosion. Subsequently, the evolutions of burnt mass were discussed, the competition between pressure rising and temperature rising induced by the heat release during combustion was considered as major influence mechanism. Then, the nexus between burning velocity and the related burnt mass rate were discussed, the variations regulations of maximal burning velocity brought by turbulence intensity and hydrogen volumetric fraction were analysed. Finally, the nexus between maximum burning velocity and heat loss was discussed.     

Numerical investigation of the effects of H2/CO/syngas additions on laminar premixed combustion characteristics of NH3/air flame

Co-firing NH₃ with H₂/CO/syngas (SYN) is a promising method to overcome the low reactivity of NH₃/air flame. Hence, this study aims to systematically investigate the laminar premixed combustion characteristics of NH₃/air flame with various H₂/CO/SYN addition loadings (0–40%) using chemical kinetics simulation. The numerical results were obtained based on the Han mechanism which can provide accurate predictions of laminar burning velocities. Results showed that H₂ has the greatest effects on increasing laminar burning velocities and net heat release rates of NH₃/air flame, followed by SYN and CO. CO has the most significant effects on improving NH₃/air adiabatic flame temperatures. The H₂/CO/SYN additions can accelerate NH₃ decomposition rates and promote the generation of H and NH₂ radicals. Furthermore, there is an evident positive linear correlation between the laminar burning velocities and the peak mole fraction of H + NH₂ radicals. The reaction NH₂ + NH <=> N₂H₂ + H and NH₂ + NO <=> NNH + OH have remarkable positive effects on NH₃ combustion. The mole fraction of OH × NH₂ radicals positively affects the net heat release rates. Finally, it was discovered that H radicals play an important role in the generation of NO. The H₂/CO/SYN additions can reduce the hydrodynamic and diffusional-thermal instabilities of NH₃/air flame. The NH₃ reaction pathways for NH₃–H₂/CO/SYN-air flames can be categorized mainly into NH₃–NH₂–NH–N–N₂, NH₃–NH₂–HNO–NO(?N₂O)–N₂ and NH₃–NH₂(?N₂H₂)–NNH–N₂. CO has the greatest influence on the proportions of three NH₃ reaction routes.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on combustion characteristics of a methane fueled MILD model combustor

Combined with need of the carbon emissions, the feasibility of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion fueled with hydrogen/methane blends needs to be investigated. This paper discusses the pollutant emissions, the stable operating range and the flame morphology for a jet-induced MILD model combustor. The hydrogen/methane volume ratios range 0:10 to 5:5. The NO_x emissions are less than 5 ppm@15%O₂ when the hydrogen content is less than 50% by volume in the atmospheric conditions. The calculation using chemical reactor network (CRN) model demonstrates that the effect of heat loss on NO_x emissions increases as the adiabatic combustion temperature increases, which is consistent with the experimental results. The maximum OH1 signal intensity increased at higher hydrogen content, especially when the hydrogen content exceeds 30% by volume. Due to the increase in turbulent burning velocity and the enhancement in the reaction intensity, the reaction zones shrink with increasing hydrogen content. In addition, with increasing hydrogen content, the stable operation range of the combustor becomes narrower, and the stable combustion is not maintained when the hydrogen content exceeds 50% by volume. The findings of the paper help to further understand the effect of hydrogen content on the formation of MILD combustion in the jet-induced combustor.     

Numerical investigation of hydrogen production via autothermal reforming of steam and methane over Ni/Al2O3 and Pt/Al2O3 patterned catalytic layers

In this study a numerical analysis of hydrogen production via an autothermal reforming reactor is presented. The endothermic reaction of steam methane reforming and the exothermic combustion of methane were activated with patterned Ni/Al₂O₃ catalytic layer and patterned Pt/Al₂O₃ catalytic layer, respectively. Aiming to achieve a more compacted process, a novel design of a reactor was proposed in which the reforming and the combustion catalysts were modeled as patterned thin layers. This configuration is analyzed and compared with two configurations. In the first configuration, the catalysts are modeled as continuous thin layers in parallel, while, in the second configuration the catalysts are modeled as continuous thin layers in series (conventional catalytic autothermal reactor). The results show that the pattern of the catalyst layers improves slightly the hydrogen yield, i.e. 3.6%. Furthermore, for the same concentration of hydrogen produced, the activated zone length can be decreased by 38% and 15% compared to the conventional catalytic autothermal reforming and the configuration where the catalysts are fitted in parallel, respectively. Besides, the oxygen consumption is lowered by 5%. The decrement of the catalyst amount and the oxygen feedstock in the novel studied design lead to lower costs and compact process.     

Effects of O2 enrichment on NH3/air flame propagation and emissions

The potential utilization of ammonia as a carbon-free fuel under oxygen (O₂)-enriched condition is demonstrated, suggesting its practically appropriate burning conditions by measuring and predicting the combustion characteristics of outwardly-propagating spherical O₂-enriched NH₃/air premixed flames at normal temperature and pressure. Measured and computed laminar burning velocities and predicted flame structure exhibit that the O₂-enriched ammonia/air flames become thinner and propagate faster with O₂ enrichment. Observed flame morphologies and measured and computed Markstein numbers reveal that all the present O₂-enriched flames are stable in terms of the flamefront cellular instability due to preferential diffusion and the effects of O₂ enrichment on the instability are negligible. Volume-based 35–40% O₂ in the nonfuel mixtures demonstrates the proper burning intensity for practical applications, comparable to the typical hydrocarbon/air flames. In the present flame configuration, however, local nitrogen oxides emissions are found to be high, which should be substantially reduced in the practical systems.     

Effects of CO addition on laminar flame characteristics and chemical reactions of H2 and CH4 in oxy-fuel (O2/CO2) atmosphere

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the effect of CO addition on the laminar flame characteristics of H₂ and CH₄ flames in a constant-volume combustion system. In addition, one-dimensional laminar premixed flame propagation processes at the same conditions are simulated with the update mechanisms. Results show that all mechanisms could well predict the laminar flame speeds of CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures, when Z_CO is large. For mixtures with lower CO, the experimental laminar flame speeds are always smaller than the calculated ones with Han mechanism. For mixtures with larger or smaller Z_CO2, GRI 3.0, San diego and USC 2.0 mechanisms all overvalue or undervalue the laminar flame speeds. When CO ratio in the CH₄/CO blended fuels increases, laminar flame speed firstly increases and then decreases for the CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures. For H₂/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures, San diego, Davis and Li mechanisms all undervalue the laminar flame speeds of H₂/CO/CO₂/CO₂ mixtures. Existing models could not well predict the nonlinear trend of the laminar flame speeds, due to complex chemical effects of CO on CH₄/CO or H₂/CO flames. Then, the detailed thermal, kinetic and diffusive effects of CO addition on the laminar flame speeds are discussed. Kinetic sensitivity coefficient is far larger than thermal and diffusive ones and this indicates CO addition influences laminar flame speeds mainly by the kinetic effect. Based on this, radical pool and sensitivity analysis are conducted for CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ and H₂/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures. For CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures, elementary reaction R38H + O₂ ↔ O + OH and R99 OH + CO ↔ H + CO₂ are the most important branching reactions with positive sensitivity coefficients when CO ratio is relative low. As CO content increases in the CH₄/CO blended fuel, the oxidation of CO plays a more and more important role. When CO ratio is larger than 0.9, the importance of R99 OH + CO ↔ H + CO₂ is far larger than that of R38H + O₂ ↔ O + OH. The oxidation of CO dominates the combustion process of CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures. For H₂/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures, the most important elementary reaction with positive and negative sensitivity coefficients are R29 CO + OH ↔ CO₂ + H and R13H + O₂(+M) ↔ HO₂(+M) respectively. The sensitivity coefficient of R29 CO + OH ↔ CO₂ + H is increasing and then decreasing with the addition of CO in the mixture. Chemical kinetic analysis shows that the chemical effect of CO on the laminar flame propagation of CH₄/CO/O₂/CO₂ and H₂/CO/O₂/CO₂ mixtures could be divided into two stages and the critical CO mole fraction is 0.9.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of effect of fuel line length on combustion instability for H2/CH4 gas turbine combustor

This study primarily aims to investigate the effects of fuel line length on the combustion instability characteristics of a partially premixed system. The key characteristics of combustion instabilities are analyzed in a H₂/CH₄ fueled laboratory scaled model gas turbine combustor with a different fuel line length via dynamic pressure measurement, continuous wavelet transform, proper orthogonal decomposition, Rayleigh criterion analysis, and a numerical approach using a three-dimensional Helmholtz solver. It is discovered that the instability characteristics change with the fuel line length. In particular, when the resonance in the fuel line appears at frequencies similar to those of the various resonance modes in the combustion chamber, the corresponding resonance modes amplify each other, causing intense instability as those frequencies. Therefore, the acoustics of the fuel line or the geometry of the pre-chamber can be an important design parameter that affects the main characteristics of combustion instability in partially premixed combustion.     

Numerical study on CH4 laminar premixed flames for combustion characteristics in the oxidant atmospheres of N2/CO2/H2O/Ar-O2

The freely-propagating laminar premixed flames of CH₄–N₂/CO₂/H₂O/Ar-O₂ mixtures were conducted with the PREMIX code. The effects of the equivalence ratio and various oxidant atmospheres on the basic combustion characteristics were analyzed with the initial pressure and temperature of 1 atm and 398 K, respectively, O₂ content in the oxidant of 21%. The chemical reaction mechanism GRI-Mech 3.0 was chosen to determine the effects of the oxidant atmospheres of N₂/O₂, CO₂/O₂, H₂O/O₂, and Ar/O₂ on the adiabatic flame temperature, laminar burning velocity, flame structure, free radicals, intermediate species, net heat release rate and specific heat of the fuel/oxidant mixtures. The numerical results show that the maximum adiabatic flame temperatures and laminar burning velocities are at Ar/O₂ atmosphere. The mole fractions of CO and H₂ increased fastest at CO₂/O₂ atmosphere and H₂O/O₂, respectively. The mole fractions of CH₃ and H follow the order Ar/O₂> N₂/O₂>H₂O/O₂>CO₂/O₂. In addition, for 4 oxidant atmospheres, the peak mole fraction of C₂H₂ is following the order H₂O/O₂>Ar/O₂>N₂/O₂>CO₂/O₂ and the net heat release rate is following the order Ar/O₂>N₂/O₂>H₂O/O₂>CO₂/O₂ for all equivalence ratios.     

Convenient storage of concentrated hydrogen peroxide as a CaO2·2H2O2(s)/H2O2(aq) slurry for energy storage applications

Prior investigations have proposed, and successfully implemented, a stand-alone supply of aqueous hydrogen peroxide for use in fuel cells. An apparent obstacle for considering the use of aqueous hydrogen peroxide as an energy storage compound is the corrosive nature of the nominally required 50 wt.% maximum concentration. Here we propose storage of concentrated hydrogen peroxide in a high weight percent solid slurry, namely the equilibrium system of CaO₂·2H₂O₂(s)/H₂O₂(aq), that mitigates much of the risk associated with the storage of such high concentrations. We have prepared and studied surrogate slurries of calcium hydroxide/water that are assumed to resemble the peroxo compound slurries. These slurries have the consistency of a paste rather than a distinct two-phase (liquid plus solid) system. This paste-like property of the prepared surrogates enable them to be contained within a 200 lines-per-inch. (LPI) nickel mesh screen (33.6% open area) with no solids leakage, and only liquid transport driven by an adsorbent material is placed in physical contact on the exterior of the screen. This hydrogen peroxide slurry approach suggests a convenient and safe mechanism of storing hydrogen peroxide for use in, say, vehicle applications. This is because fuel cell design requires only aqueous hydrogen peroxide use, that can be achieved using the separation approach utilizing the screen material here. This proposed method of storage should mitigate hazards associated with unintentional spills and leakage issues arising from aqueous solution use.     

Experimental and numerical study on premixed partially dissociated ammonia mixtures. Part I: Laminar burning velocity of NH3/H2/N2/air mixtures

Ammonia is considered as a promising hydrogen carrier, which is seen as a reliable carbon-free fuel. Improving the combustion properties of ammonia is the focus of current research. The hydrogen could be dissociated from the ammonia in real applications. For purpose of combustion, partially dissociated ammonia could be combusted directly without using extra hydrogen. Laminar burning velocity is an important combustion parameter, but there are only a few data of partially dissociated ammonia are reported. To fill the data gap, the laminar burning velocity was measured at various equivalence ratios and dissociation degrees of ammonia by the constant pressure spherical flame method in this study. Besides, fifteen kinetic models were compared with experimental data, and the model with the best consistency was obtained. The experimental results show that the laminar burning velocity increases monotonically with the increase of the dissociating degree. When ammonia is completely dissociated, the maximum laminar burning velocity increases from 7.9 cm/s to 228 cm/s, and the equivalence ratio corresponding to the peak value also shifts from 1.1 to 1.6. The laminar burning velocity predicted by the model constructed by Stagni is in best agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, data calculated by the five correlations for predicting laminar burning velocity were compared with the numerical data to verify that whether they are suitable for the mixtures with additional nitrogen. The results show that the correlation based on the activation temperature is the most accurate. However, it still has a maximum relative error of ±20% within the calculated range.     

Comparison of the effect of heat release and products from heterogeneous reaction on homogeneous combustion of H2/O2 mixture in the catalytic micro combustor

Numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the hetero-/homogeneous combustion of stoichiometric H₂/O₂ premixed flames in a platinum-coated planar micro channel. Three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models with detailed reaction mechanisms for homogeneous (gas phase, G) and heterogeneous (catalytic, C) reactions were adopted. The effects of the heat released and products from heterogeneous reaction (CR) on the homogeneous reaction (GR) were analyzed and compared systematically. In the presence of additional released heat, the flame temperature, intermediate concentrations and product yield increased, especially near the inner wall. The promotion effect of heat released from the CR on the GR was indicated, and it mainly reflected in the increase of chemical reaction rate and fuel consumption. When the heat released and the products from the CR were added simultaneously, the flame temperature and species (OH) concentration were still low as compared with the model without addition. The inhibition effect of the product on the GR was larger than the promotion effect of the additional heat on the GR. The increase in the chemical reaction rate and fuel conversion rate demonstrated that, the heat released from the CR could improve the combustion efficiency of the micro combustor.     

Numerical investigation on the self-ignition and combustion characteristics of H2/air in catalytic micro channel

The self-ignition of hydrogen/air is an important process in the micro thermophotovoltaic system. The transient numerical models of gas-phase reaction and catalytic reaction in the various catalytic micro combustors were built and verified. The self-ignition process of gas-phase reaction caused by catalytic reaction in the catalytic micro channel with conventional heat dissipation was studied. The self-ignition process could be divided into four stages, fuel diffusion stage - pure catalytic reaction stage - flame front moving stage - stable combustion stage. The ignition time and temperature limit at different inlet temperatures, inlet velocities and channel heights were analyzed. The results showed that the wall quenching effect, thermal effect and flame propagation effect are dominant at low temperature, medium temperature and high temperature respectively. The catalyst length and the mixture internal energy were the main factor at low inlet velocity and high inlet velocity respectively. The steady-state time was also studied in the various operation conditions. Finally, the catalytic combustion characteristics in the stable combustion stage were analyzed. The influence of inert section length, inlet temperature and inlet velocity on the maximum temperature and fuel conversion ratio were investigated.     

Effect of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) on electrochemical hydrogen storage capacity of BaAl2O4/BaCO3 nanoparticles

A green synthesis method, solution combustion, were performed to synthesize BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃ nanoparticles by using stoichiometric amount of cations, Ba²⁺ and Al³⁺, in rational fraction of a fuel (maltose). Single fuel led to the formation of combustion reaction required further annealing at 700 °C in order to achieve pure crystals. The average crystallite sizes of the BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃ nanopowders were obtained about 36 nm using modified Scherrer equation. In order to improve the electrochemical hydrogen storage capacity of BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃ nanoparticles, a novel admixture was designed by introducing copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) into an inorganic phase. The reaction profiles of BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃-CuPc nanocomposites were confirmed by FTIR analysis. The structural and elemental analysis were confirmed the formation of nanocomposites. Morphological analysis confirmed the nanoscale formation of the host material. In addition, TEM results clearly confirmed the morphology of BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃ sample and its nanocomposites. The Band gap energy was calculated for host, CuPc and its respective nanocomposites using Tauc method obtained at 4.95, 2.10 and 2.54/4.89 eV, respectively. Electrochemical performances of the materials were confirmed a large I_pa for BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃-CuPc nanocomposites as compare to the host materials. This was directly reflected in hydrogen storage capacities of the materials (900 mA h/g discharge capacity for BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃ (～3.17%) and >1500 mA h/g for BaAl₂O₄/BaCO₃-CuPc nanocomposites (～5.3%)).