Experimental and numerical study of oxy‐methane flames in a porous‐plate reactor mimicking membrane reactor operation

The work investigates the reacting flow field, oxy‐methane flame characteristics and location, and the species distributions in a porous‐plate reactor mimicking the operation of oxygen transport membrane reactors (OTMRs). The study was performed experimentally and numerically considering ranges of operating equivalence ratio, from 0.5 to 1.0, and CO₂ concentrations in the total oxidizer flow (O₂ and CO₂), from 0% to 55% (by Vol). Oxygen was supplied through a slightly pressurized top and bottom chambers to cross the two porous plates to the central chamber, where a premixed mixture of CH₄ and CO₂ is introduced. ANSYS Fluent 17.1 software was used to solve for conservation and radiative transfer equations in the full three‐dimensional (3‐D) domain. The modified Westbrook‐Dryer (Oxy‐WD) two‐step reduced mechanism for oxy‐methane combustion was adapted for the calculations of chemical kinetics. The captured flame shapes using a high‐speed camera were compared with the calculated ones, and the results showed good agreements. At fixed equivalence ratio, elongated flames were obtained at higher CO₂ concentrations due to the increase in the mainstream Reynolds number and reduction in reaction rates, which delays the completeness of combustion. At fixed CO₂ concentration, the increase in equivalence ratio resulted in more compact and intense flames. The effective mixing and flame stability resulted in complete fuel conversion under stoichiometric condition. Stable flames were located between the two porous plates at reasonable distance. This perfect flame location prevents the thermal fracture of the membranes and improves their oxygen permeation flux, resulting in better combustion characteristics when the results are projected on the case of OTMRs. This implies efficient and safe applicability of the OTMRs by the condition that membranes can provide sufficient oxygen flux for complete combustion. A warm outer recirculation zone (ORZ) was created beside each porous plate, which helps anchoring the flame at the leading edge of the porous plate. The range of temperature within the ORZ was 800 to 1600 K, which lies in the operability limits of membranes for the case of OTMRs. The effective complete mixing and flame stability resulted in complete fuel conversion under stoichiometric condition. The temperature and species distributions within the reactor are presented in detail over wide ranges of operating conditions. The results recommended the reactor operation under stoichiometric combustion condition based on performance and economic points of views. The results are promising when projected on the application of the OTMRs under oxy‐combustion conditions for clean and efficient energy production.     

Modeling of ion transport reactor for oxy‐fuel combustion

This paper aims at investigating the performance of a cylindrical ion transport reactor designed for oxy‐fuel combustion. The cylindrical reactor walls are made of dense, nonporous, mixed‐conducting ceramic membranes that only allow oxygen permeation from the outside air into the combustion chamber. The sweep gas (CO₂ and CH₄) enters the reactor from one side and mixes with the oxygen permeate, and the products are discharged from the other side. The process of oxygen permeation through the reactor walls is influenced by the flow condition and composition of air at the feed side (inlet air side) and the gas mixture at the permeate side (sweep gas side). The modeling of the flow process is based on the numerical solution of the conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species in the axisymmetric flow domain. The membrane is modeled as a selective layer in which the oxygen permeation depends on the prevailing temperatures as well as the oxygen partial pressure at both sides of the membrane. The CFD calculations were carried out using fluent 12.1 (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA), whereas the mass transfer of oxygen through the membrane is modeled by a set of user defined functions. The model results were validated against previous experimental data, and the comparison showed a good agreement. The study focused on the effect of oxygen partial pressure and temperature on the resulting combustion zones inside the reactor for the two cases of co‐current and counter‐current flow regimes. The results indicated that the oxygen to fuel mass ratio increases as the percentage of CO₂ increases in the inflow sweep gas for both co‐current and counter‐current flows. The obtained sweep mixture ratio (CO₂/CH₄) of 24 is found within the stoichiometric limit over most of the reactor length in the co‐current configuration, whereas the sweep mixture ratio of 15.67 is found in the counter‐current configuration owing to the high O₂ permeation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new weighted‐sum‐of‐gray‐gases model for oxy‐combustion scenarios

A new weighted‐sum‐of‐gray gases (WSGG) model that is based on the statistical narrow band model (SNB) RADCAL is proposed for use in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of air and oxy‐combustion. When employed in conjunction with the discrete ordinates (DO) method, the model predictions compare well against line‐by‐line benchmark data that have been made available recently that are based on the latest spectroscopic databases. Furthermore, the model compares well against the EM2C SNB model calculations that have served as benchmark data in three‐dimensional geometries. Radiative transfer calculations in these prototypical problems therefore confirm recent experimental observations that SNB RADCAL and EM2C SNB serve as good model databases to develop approximate radiative property models. To achieve an optimum balance of speed and accuracy in computationally intensive CFD simulations, non‐gray formulations of the WSGG model are also employed with the P1 model and solutions are compared against those generated by the DO model. While the P1 model gave favorable comparisons when cold, black walls were present, the errors in the surface incident radiative flux predictions increased in the presence of hot, reflecting walls. Finally, in fully coupled simulations of natural gas combustion under air‐firing and oxy‐firing modes, the predicted incident radiative flux profiles were distinctly different between the gray and non‐gray calculations at regions of high temperature gradients, while the centerline temperature predictions were comparatively unaffected. The effects of turbulence radiation interactions were also accounted for through the temperature self‐correlation term. However, the magnitudes of the temperature fluctuations were small and localized within this furnace and did not significantly alter our predictions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of performance of fire‐tube boilers integrated with ion transport membrane for oxy‐fuel combustion

The performance of a carbon free fire‐tube boiler utilizing two‐pass oxygen transport reactors was numerically investigated. The influences of the oxygen transport reactors wall temperature on the reaction rate, oxygen permeation and heat flux were quantified. The performance of the reactors has been investigated at elevated temperature. It is observed that both heat transfer and combustion characteristics can be optimized at an elevated temperature of 1373 K. Increasing the mass fraction of methane in this reactor to 6% results in improvement of the heat transfer and combustion characteristics in the reactor. Further increase in CH₄% did not lead to any significant improvement. The fuel flow rate variation did not have any significant impact on the reactor performance. It is indicated that the membrane temperature has significant effect on the reaction rates and oxygen flux in the upstream region in particular. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fundamental study of heterogeneous KCl sulfation under oxy‐fuel combustion conditions

Under oxy‐fuel combustion condition, SO₂ in the flue gas would be accumulated by recirculation, which is conducive to the heterogeneous sulfation reaction of alkali metals. In the present study, experiments were conducted in a fixed bed to investigate the effects of operating parameters and mineral additives (SiO₂, CaO, and Fe₂O₃) on the heterogeneous sulfation of potassium chloride under oxy‐fuel combustion atmosphere. According to the results here, the heterogeneous sulfation reaction was a kinetically controlled process, with the activation energy of 93.6 kJ/mol. The reaction orders with respect to SO₂, O₂, and H₂O were determined as 1, 0.6 and 0 (H₂O involved in the reaction). While the reaction would be promoted obviously in the absence of H₂O. The rate law of heterogeneous sulfation of potassium chloride was derived based on the experimental data. Compared with air combustion, the heterogeneous sulfation rate was lower under oxy‐fuel combustion. All the mineral additives employed would affect the sulfation reaction. The sulfation reaction can be catalyzed by Fe₂O₃. While CaO would suppress the reaction by competing for SO₂ with KCl. The reaction between CaO and SO₂ could also be catalyzed by Fe₂O₃. Besides, SO₂ was more reactive towards CaO than KCl.     

Effect of varying fuel types on oxy‐combustion performance

In search for clean energy solutions in a global warming era, oxy‐fuel combustion systems are promising. In the study, combustion products are calculated, and exergy analysis is done using the proposed multifeature equilibrium combustion model. And the results obtained for oxy‐combustion of different fuels at various oxygen fractions are given in comparison with conventional combustion. For validation, the model results are compared with popular combustion calculation tools, GASEQ and CEA. Effect of oxygen content on oxy‐combustion exergy analysis is calculated, also considering changes in equivalence ratio and combustion chamber inlet temperature. Moreover, indicating parameters for combustion performance, temperature ratio, chemical exergy, physical exergy, total specific exergy, and exergy destruction are utilized in the calculations elaborately. Changes in combustion product mole fractions are explained for rich and lean combustion regions. And also, specific exergy results are presented. In terms of exergy destruction, oxy‐combustion is more advantageous than conventional combustion. It has been shown that exergy destruction in combustion process with conventional air is approximately 1.5 times higher compared with 21% oxy‐combustion, both at different equivalence ratios and at different combustion chamber inlet temperatures. Nowadays, environment‐friendly, clean energy production systems are growing in numbers. In this concept, exergetic analyses of combustion for different fuels and greener natural gas, compared with diesel, gasoline, and methanol, are given in comparison. Considering four fuel types, advantageous and disadvantageous cases are presented for oxy‐combustion at different oxygen fractions and conventional combustion. As a result, diesel fuel is more advantageous than the other three fuel types, in terms of temperature ratio and exergy. Natural gas combustion appears to be disadvantageous in terms of specific exergy and temperature ratio, but it is the most advantageous in terms of exergy destruction. Consequently, distinctive comparison is done for oxy‐combustion and conventional combustion, determining positive and negative effects for different fuels.     

Numerical modelling of a three-zone combustion for heavy fuel oil in inert porous media reactor

Numerical model for heavy fuel oil and air mixtures combustion is presented to simulate the behavior of the fuel in an inert porous medium reactor for hydrogen production. Three-zone combustion of oil and petroleum cokes separated by temperature ranges starting from ambient temperature to 560 K, from 560 K to 673 K, and above 673 K, is presented. Hydrogen production is achieved using water gas shift equilibrium reaction on the combustion products at different temperatures. Results show a high enthalpy contribution due to coke combustion formed in the low temperature oxidation reaction, being the most important reaction in relation to its zone size. Simulations increasing filtration velocity (from 0.05 to 0.9 m/s) has a favorable effect on the maximum temperature and the combustion front velocity. The effect of the simplified combustion model lowers computational time, with acceptable results for temperature as well as hydrogen production in contrast to laboratory tests and other software simulation such as COMSOL Multiphysics.     

Efficiency enhancement of pressurized oxy‐coal power plant with heat integration

The oxy‐coal combustion with carbon dioxide capture and sequestration is among the promising clean coal technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions. Because most of oxy‐coal power plants need to cope with energy penalties from air separation and CO₂ compressor units, the pressurized combustion is added to reduce the electricity demand for the CCS system, and the waste heat of the pressurized flue gas is recovered by the heat integration technique to increase the power generation from steam turbines. Finally, the efficiency enhancement of a 100 MW_e‐scale power plant is successfully validated by Aspen Plus simulation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review of oxy‐fuel combustion in fluidized bed reactors

Presently, there is no detailed review that summarizes the current knowledge status on oxy‐fuel combustion in fluidized bed combustors. This paper reviewed the existing literature in heat transfer, char combustion and pollutant emissions oxy‐fuel combustion in fluidized beds, as well as modelling of oxy‐fuel in FB boiler and gaps were identified for further research direction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review of recent developments in carbon capture utilizing oxy‐fuel combustion in conventional and ion transport membrane systems

Fossil fuels provide a significant fraction of the global energy resources, and this is likely to remain so for several decades. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions have been correlated with climate change, and carbon capture is essential to enable the continuing use of fossil fuels while reducing the emissions of CO₂ into the atmosphere thereby mitigating global climate changes. Among the proposed methods of CO₂ capture, oxyfuel combustion technology provides a promising option, which is applicable to power generation systems. This technology is based on combustion with pure oxygen (O₂) instead of air, resulting in flue gas that consists mainly of CO₂ and water (H₂O), that latter can be separated easily via condensation, while removing other contaminants leaving pure CO₂ for storage. However, fuel combustion in pure O₂ results in intolerably high combustion temperatures. In order to provide the dilution effect of the absent nitrogen (N₂) and to moderate the furnace/combustor temperatures, part of the flue gas is recycled back into the combustion chamber. An efficient source of O₂ is required to make oxy‐combustion a competitive CO₂ capture technology. Conventional O₂ production utilizing the cryogenic distillation process is energetically expensive. Ceramic membranes made from mixed ion‐electronic conducting oxides have received increasing attention because of their potential to mitigate the cost of O₂ production, thus helping to promote these clean energy technologies. Some effort has also been expended in using these membranes to improve the performance of the O₂ separation processes by combining air separation and high‐temperature oxidation into a single chamber. This paper provides a review of the performance of combustors utilizing oxy‐fuel combustion process, materials utilized in ion‐transport membranes and the integration of such reactors in power cycles. The review is focused on carbon capture potential, developments of oxyfuel applications and O₂ separation and combustion in membrane reactors. The recent developments in oxyfuel power cycles are discussed focusing on the main concepts of manipulating exergy flows within each cycle and the reported thermal efficiencies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characteristic evaluation of a CO2‐capturing repowering system based on oxy‐fuel combustion and exergetic flow analyses for improving efficiency

A CO₂‐capturing H₂O turbine power generation system based on oxy‐fuel combustion method is proposed to decrease CO₂ emission from an existing thermal power generation system (TPGS) by utilizing steam produced in the TPGS. A high efficient combined cycle power generation system (CCPS) with reheat cycle is adopted as an example of existing TPGSs into which the proposed system is retrofitted. First, power generation characteristics of the proposed CO₂‐capturing system, which requires no modification of the CCPS itself, are estimated. It is shown through simulation study that the proposed system can reduce 26.8% of CO₂ emission with an efficiency decrease by 1.20% and an increase power output by 23.2%, compared with the original CCPS. Second, in order to improve power generation characteristics and CO₂ reduction effect of the proposed system, modifications of the proposed system are investigated based on exergetic flow analyses, and revised systems are proposed based on the obtained results. Finally, it is shown that a revised proposed system, which has the same turbine inlet temperature as the CCPS, can increase power output by 33.6%, and reduce 32.5% of CO₂ emission with exergetic efficiency decrease by 1.58%, compared with the original CCPS. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental study on combustion of torrefied palm kernel shell (PKS) in oxy‐fuel environment

Oxy‐combustion of biomass can be a major candidate to achieve negative emission of CO₂ from a pulverized fuel (pf)‐firing power generation plants. Understanding combustion behavior of biomass fuels in oxy‐firing conditions is a key for design of oxy‐combustion retrofit of pulverized fuel power plant. This study aims to investigate a lab‐scale combustion behavior of torrefied palm kernel shell (PKS) in oxy‐combustion environments in comparison with the reference bituminous coal. A 20 kW_th‐scale, down‐firing furnace was used to conduct the experiments using both air (conventional) and O₂/CO₂ (30 vol% for O₂) as an oxidant. A bituminous coal (Sebuku coal) was also combusted in both air‐ and oxy‐firing condition with the same conditions of oxidizers and thermal heat inputs. Distributions of gas temperature, unburned carbon, and NO_x concentration were measured through sampling of gases and particles along axial directions. Moreover, the concentrations of SO_x and HCl were measured at the exit of the furnace. Experimental results showed that burnout rate was enhanced during oxy‐fuel combustion. The unburnt carbon in the flue gas was reduced considerably (~75%) during combustion of torrefied PKS in oxy‐fuel environment as compared with air‐firing condition. In addition, NO emission was reduced by 16.5% during combustion of PKS in oxy‐fuel environment as compared with air‐firing condition.     

Effects of coal characteristics to performance of a highly efficient thermal power generation system based on pressurized oxy‐fuel combustion

Because of its fuel flexibility and high efficiency, pressurized oxy‐fuel combustion has recently emerged as a promising approach for efficient carbon capture and storage. One of the important options to design the pressurized oxy‐combustion is to determine method of coal (or other solid fuels) feeding: dry feeding or wet (coal slurry) feeding as well as grade of coals. The main aim of this research is to investigate effects of coal characteristics including wet or dry feeding on the performance of thermal power plant based on the pressurized oxy‐combustion with CO₂ capture versus atmospheric oxy‐combustion. A commercial process simulation tool (gCCS: the general carbon capture and storage) was used to simulate and analyze an advanced ultra‐supercritical(A‐USC) coal power plant under pressurized and atmospheric oxy‐fuel conditions. The design concept is based on using pure oxygen as an oxidant in a pressurized system to maximize the heat recovery through process integration and to reduce the efficiency penalty because of compression and purification units. The results indicate that the pressurized case efficiency at 30 bars was greater than the atmospheric oxy‐fuel combustion (base line case) by 6.02% when using lignite coal firing. Similarly, efficiency improvements in the case of subbituminous and bituminous coals were around 3% and 2.61%, respectively. The purity of CO₂ increased from 53.4% to 94% after compression and purification. In addition, the study observed the effects of coal‐water slurry using bituminous coal under atmospheric conditions, determining that the net plant efficiency decreased by 3.7% when the water content in the slurry increased from 11.12% to 54%. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review of investigations on liquid fuel combustion in porous inert media

Utilization of a porous medium for combustion of liquid fuels is proved to be a promising approach for future applications. The porous medium burner for liquid fuels is more advantageous than the conventional open spray flame burner for several reasons; these include enhanced evaporation of droplet spray owing to regenerative combustion characteristics, low emission of pollutants, high combustion intensity with moderate turn-down ratio and compactness. This article provides a comprehensive picture of the global scenario of research and developments in combustion of liquid fuels within a porous medium that enable a researcher to determine the direction of further investigation. Accordingly, a glossary of the important terminology, the modeling approach, advances in numerical and experimental works and applications are included. The papers published in standard journals are reviewed and summarized with relevant comments and suggestions for future work.     

Simulation of thermally‐enhanced combustion in a porous medium burner

Premixed combustion in a porous medium burner is investigated numerically. A two‐dimensional steady, laminar flow model is used. A single‐step reaction of methane is used for the chemical kinetic model. The model also includes thermal radiation transport of the porous media that is placed inside the burner. The radiative transport equation is solved by using the discrete ordinate method. The results show that, for each equivalence ratio, the flame can be stabilized at various axial locations with different flame speeds. The flame temperature increases with the equivalence ratio and flame speed. Furthermore, the energy release rates are much higher than that of a free flame for the same equivalence ratio as a result of higher flame speed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(1): 75–88, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20088     

Thermogravimetric analysis and process simulation of oxy‐fuel combustion of blended fuels including oil shale,semicoke, and biomass

Oxy‐fuel (OF) combustion is considered as one of the promising carbon capture and storage technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions from power plants. In the current work, the thermal behaviour of Estonian oil shale (EOS) and its semicoke (SC), pine saw dust, and their blends were studied comparatively under model air (21%O₂/79%Ar) and OF (30%O₂/70%CO₂) conditions using thermogravimetric analysis. Mass spectrometry analysis was applied to monitor the evolved gases. The effect of SC and pine saw dust addition on different combustion stages was analysed using kinetic analysis methods. In addition, different co‐firing cases were simulated using the ASPEN PLUS V8.6 (APV86) software tool to evaluate the effects of blending EOS with different biomass fuels of low and high moisture contents. The specific boiler temperatures of each simulated case with the same adjusted thermal fuel input were calculated while applying the operation conditions of air and OF combustion. According to the experiment and process simulation results, the low heating value and high carbonate content of SC brings along endothermic decomposition of carbonates, which negatively affects the heat balance during the conventional co‐combustion of EOS with SC. Instead, firing of EOS with SC and biomass in OF process can be an effective solution to reduce the environmental impact in terms of the reduction of CO₂ emissions and ash. Furthermore, the sensible heat from SC can positively affect the energy balance of the system as the endothermic effect of decomposition of CaCO₃ (for both EOS and SC) can be avoided in OF combustion.     

New weighted‐sum‐of‐gray‐gases model for typical pressurized oxy‐fuel conditions

Pressurized oxy‐fuel combustion technology has received considerable attention due to its ability to improve the overall system efficiency and to control CO₂ emissions. The characteristics of radiation heat transfer are significant for pressurized oxy‐fuel gas mixture and different from those under atmospheric conditions. Therefore, to calculate the radiation characteristics of pressurized oxy‐fuel gas mixture quickly and accurately, new weighted‐sum‐of‐gray‐gases (WSGG) model for pressurized oxy‐fuel conditions was first presented in this paper, which was applied in 3 typical high pressure conditions: 5, 10, and 15 bar. The new WSGG model correlations were suitable for pressurized conditions with a molar ratio range of 0.125‐2, temperature range of 400‐2500 K, and path length range of 0.1‐20 m. Calculations for a variety of typical pressurized oxy‐fuel combustion cases showed that the new WSGG model can accurately predict the radiation characteristics and heat transfer characteristics of the gas mixtures compared with the SNB model benchmark. In addition, the application of the previous atmospheric WSGG models yielded non‐ideal results under pressurized conditions. Consequently, the new model can provide efficient and accurate radiation heat transfer results for pressurized oxy‐fuel conditions and can be used to design pressurized oxy‐fuel combustion furnaces or boilers.     

Neutron physics of the liquid‐fuel heat‐pipe reactor concept with molten salt fuel—Static calculations

A liquid‐fuel heat‐pipe reactor (LFHPR) is a novel fast heterogeneous reactor developed by Harbin Engineering University, China, on the basis of liquid‐fuel reactor designs and the heat‐pipe reactor concept. In the concept, the reactor abandons the graphite moderator and keeps neither fuel tubes arranged in the graphite nor fuel rings around the heat pipe. Instead, the reactor applies molten salt fuels, molten metallic eutectic fuels, or other fuels in liquid form. The heat generated in the reactor is removed by the heat pipes driven by liquid metals. With this change, an LFHPR is much more flexible in design and application and able to achieve several advanced features compared with conventional heat‐pipe reactors. In this paper, we describe the general reactor design of an LFHPR, discuss its potential advantages, and give a preliminary verification of the neutron physical feasibility for the reference case, which uses molten salt as the fuel, by using both Monte Carlo and deterministic methods. Results show that the LFHPR yields a hard neutron spectrum that brings a very good neutron economy and is a promising application for breeding. From our approach, we conclude that the proposed LFHPR has a very high power density and high negative temperature feedback coefficient.     

Investigation of flame characteristics using various design parameters in a pulverized coal burner for oxy‐fuel retrofitting

In oxy‐coal combustion for carbon capture and storage, oxygen and recirculated CO₂ are used as oxidizers instead of air to produce CO₂‐rich flue gas. Owing to differences between the physical and chemical properties of CO₂ and N₂, the development of a burner and boiler system based on fundamental understanding of the flame type, heat transfer, and NOx emission is required. In this study, computational fluid dynamic analysis incorporating comprehensive coal conversion models was performed to investigate the combustion characteristics of a 30 MWth tangential vane swirl pulverized coal burner. Various burner design parameters were evaluated, including the influence of the burner geometry on the swirl strength, direct O₂ injection, and O₂ concentrations in the primary and secondary oxidizers. The flame characteristics were sensitive to the oxygen concentration in the primary oxidizer. The performance of direct O₂ injection around the primary oxidizer with low O₂ concentration was dependent on the mixing of the fuel and oxidizer. The predictions showed that swirl number adjustment and careful direct oxygen injection design are essential for retrofitting air‐firing pulverized coal burners as oxy‐firing burners.     

Experimental and numerical studies on chemically reacting gas flow in the porous structure of a solid oxide fuel cells internal fuel reformer

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on the fuel reforming process on an Ni/YSZ catalyst. Nickel is widely known as a catalyst material for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Because of its prices and catalytic properties, Ni is used in both electrodes and internal reforming reactors. To optimize the reforming reactors, detailed data about the entire reforming process is required. In the present paper kinetics of methane/steam reforming on the Ni/YSZ catalyst was experimentally investigated. Measurements including different thermal boundary conditions, the fuel flow rate and the steam-to-methane ratios were performed. The reforming rate equation derived from experimental data was used in the numerical model to predict synthetic gas composition at the outlet of the reformer.