Hydrogen enrichment of methane and syngas for MILD combustion

Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion is a technology with important characteristics such as significant low emission and high-efficiency combustion. The hydrogen enrichment of conventional fuels is also of interest due to its favorable characteristics, such as low carbon-containing pollutants, high reaction intensity, high flammability, and thus fuel usage flexibility. In this study, the effects of adding hydrogen to methane and syngas fuels have been investigated under conditions of MILD combustion through numerical simulation of a well-set-up MILD burner. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach is adopted along the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) combustion model with two different chemical mechanisms. Molecular diffusion is modeled using the differential diffusion approach. The effects of oxidizer dilution and fuel jet Reynolds number on the reactive flow field have been studied. Results show that with an increase in hydrogen portion of the fuel mixtures, the volume of the high-temperature region of combustion field increases whereas a reduction of oxidizer oxygen content leads to more proximity to the MILD condition. Increasing the fuel jet Reynolds number will result in an expansion of the combustion zone and shifting of this region in the axial direction. Predictions revealed that the methane flame is more sensitive to the oxidizer dilution and fuel jet Reynolds number than syngas. Moreover, enrichment of fuel with hydrogen seems to be better for acquiring condition of the MILD combustion for syngas rather than methane. Indeed, syngas shows more sensitivity to hydrogen enrichment than methane, which makes hydrogen a good additive to syngas in terms of MILD condition benefits.     

Coal dust gasification in the filtration combustion mode with syngas production

A new method for the gasification of fine solid fuel was proposed and worked out, by partial oxidation in a flow of gaseous oxidant with filtration of the suspended fuel through an inert porous matrix. In this case, the solid fuel gasification was carrying out similar to the filtration combustion of gases. The gasification of fine solid coal allows one to produce a combustible gas rich in H₂ and CO was studied. A possibility of pulverized coal gasification in a fixed bed reactor with production of gaseous products containing up to 13% by volume of hydrogen and carbon monoxide was shown experimentally.     

Numerical and experimental study of the conversion of methane to hydrogen in a porous media reactor

In this paper, conversion of methane to hydrogen within a porous media reactor was investigated over the fuel-rich equivalence ratio range of 1.5 to 5. Experimental data were taken to validate the computational model and good agreement was established between the two. The characteristics of interest were wave velocity, peak combustion temperature, flame structure, volumetric heat release, wave thickness, and hydrogen yield. The parameters investigated that affect these characteristics included inlet velocity, equivalence ratio, and the thermal conductivity and the specific heat of the porous media. The computational model predicted a peak percentage conversion of methane to hydrogen of approximately 59% while experimental results show a peak of approximately 73%. The model also predicted the experimental trend that conversion efficiency increases as the inlet velocity of the initial fuel-air mixture increases. Species profiles obtained from the computational model showed the signature dual-reforming regimes known as partial oxidation and steam reforming inherent with fuel-rich filtration combustion. The main contribution of this paper is an understanding of the transient nature of the combustion wave for fuel-rich conditions and how the nature of the combustion wave influences conversion efficiency. As the combustion wave progresses, the steam-reforming zone thickness increases, resulting from the constant heat addition to the solid. A thick, high-temperature zone, which promotes steam reforming and is heavily dependent upon the specific heat of the porous media, is preferred to maximize conversion efficiency.     

Hydrogen production in ultrarich combustion of hydrocarbon fuels in porous media

Rich and ultrarich combustion of methane, ethane, and propane inside inert porous media is studied experimentally and numerically to examine the suitability of the concept for hydrogen production. Temperature, velocities, and chemical products of the combustion waves were recorded experimentally at a range of equivalence ratios from stoichiometry (φ = 1.0) to φ = 2.5, for a filtration velocity of 12 cm/s. Two-temperature numerical model based on comprehensive heat transfer and chemical mechanisms is found to be in a good qualitative agreement with experimental data. Partial oxidation products of methane, ethane, and propane (H₂, CO, and C₂ hydrocarbons) are dominant for ultrarich superadiabatic combustion. The maximum hydrogen yield is close to 50% for all fuels, and carbon monoxide yield is close to 80%.     

Conversion of jet fuel and butanol to syngas by filtration combustion

Replacing batteries with fuel cells is a promising approach for powering portable devices; however, hydrogen fuel generation and storage are challenges to the acceptance of this technology. A potential solution to this problem is on-site fuel reforming, in which a rich fuel/air mixture is converted to a hydrogen-rich syngas. In this paper, we present experimental results of the conversion of jet fuel (Jet-A) and butanol to syngas by non-catalytic filtration combustion in a porous media reactor operating over a wide range of equivalence ratios and inlet velocities. Since the focus of this study is the production of syngas, our primary results are the hydrogen yield, the carbon monoxide yield, and the energy conversion efficiency. In addition, the production of soot that occurred during testing is discussed for both fuels. Finally, an analysis of the potential for these fuels and others to be converted to syngas based on the present experiments and data available in the literature is presented. This study is intended to increase the understanding of filtration combustion for syngas production and to illuminate the potential of these fuels for conversion to syngas by non-catalytic methods.     

Burning syngas in a high swirl burner: Effects of fuel composition

Flame characteristics of swirling non-premixed H₂/CO syngas fuel mixtures have been simulated using large eddy simulation and detailed chemistry. The selected combustor configuration is the TECFLAM burner which has been used for extensive experimental investigations for natural gas combustion. The large eddy simulation (LES) solves the governing equations on a structured Cartesian grid using a finite volume method, with turbulence and combustion modelling based on the localised dynamic Smagorinsky model and the steady laminar flamelet model respectively. The predictions for H₂-rich and CO-rich flames show considerable differences between them for velocity and scalar fields and this demonstrates the effects of fuel variability on the flame characteristics in swirling environment. In general, the higher diffusivity of hydrogen in H₂-rich fuel is largely responsible for forming a much thicker flame with a larger vortex breakdown bubble (VBB) in a swirling flame compare to the H₂-lean but CO-rich syngas flames.     

Hydrogen and syngas production from propane and polyethylene

Hybrid filtration combustion of propane in a porous medium composed of aleatory polyethylene pellets and alumina spheres is studied to examine the suitability of the concept for hydrogen and syngas production. Temperature, velocity, and chemical products of the combustion waves were recorded experimentally in the range of equivalence ratios from stoichiometry (φ = 1.0) to φ = 1.65. The model predictions for combustion in inert porous media using GRI 3.0 reaction mechanism are in good qualitative agreement with experimental data. Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide are dominant combustion products for upstream sub-adiabatic temperatures recorder in all the range of equivalence ratios studied. The maximum hydrogen and carbon monoxide yields are close to 48% and 89%, respectively.     

Laminar flow with combustion in inert porous media

This work presents one-dimensional numerical results for combustion of an air/methane mixture in inert porous media using laminar and radiation models. Comparisons with experimental data are reported. The burner is composed by a preheating section followed by a combustion region. Macroscopic equations for mass, momentum and energy are obtained based on the volume average concept. Distinct energy equations are considered for the porous burner and the flowing gas. The numerical technique employed for discretizing the governing equations was the control volume method with a boundary-fitted non-orthogonal coordinate system. The SIMPLE algorithm was used to relax the entire equation set. Inlet velocity, excess air, porosity and solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio were varied in order to investigate their effect on temperature profiles. Results indicate that higher inlet velocities result in higher gas temperatures, following a similar trend observed in the experimental data used for comparisons. Burning of mixtures close to the stoichiometric conditions also increased temperatures, as expected. Increasing the thermal conductivity of the preheating section reduced peak temperature in the combustion region. The use of porous material with very high thermal conductivity on the combustion region did not affect significantly temperature levels in the combustion section.     

The dynamics of in-situ combustion fronts in porous media

The sustained propagation of combustion fronts in porous media is a necessary condition for the success of in situ combustion for oil recovery. Compared to other recovery methods, in situ combustion involves the complexity of exothermic reactions and temperature-dependent chemical kinetics. In the presence of heat losses, the possibility of ignition and extinction also exists. In this paper, we address some of these issues by studying the properties of forward combustion fronts propagating at a constant velocity in the presence of heat losses. We extend the analytical method used in smoldering combustion [7], to derive expressions for temperature and concentration profiles and the velocity of the combustion front, under both adiabatic and non-adiabatic conditions. Heat losses are assumed to be relatively weak and they are expressed using two modes: 1) a convective type, using an overall heat transfer coefficient; and, 2) a conductive type, for heat transfer by transverse conduction to infinitely large surrounding formations. In their presence we derive multiple steady-state solutions with stable low and high temperature branches, and an unstable intermediate branch. Conditions for self-sustaining front propagation are investigated as a function of injection and reservoir properties. The extinction threshold is expressed in terms of the system properties. An explicit expression is also obtained for the effective heat transfer coefficient in terms of the reservoir thickness and the front propagation speed. This coefficient is not only dependent on the thermal properties of the porous medium but also on the front dynamics.     

Effect of heat loss on the syngas production by fuel-rich combustion in a divergent two-layer burner

The effect of heat loss on the syngas production from partial combustion of fuel-rich in a divergent two-layer burner is numerically studied using two-dimensional model with detailed kinetics GRI-Mech 1.2. Both the radiation and wall heat losses to the surrounding are considered in the computations. It is shown that two types heat losses have different effects on the syngas production. The radiation heat loss has significant effect on the syngas temperature and the syngas temperature is dropped as radiation heat loss is increased, but it has neglected effect on the reforming efficiency and methane conversion efficiency. The wall heat loss has a comprehensive effect on the syngas production. The wall heat loss not only reduces the conversion efficiency, but also significantly decreases the syngas temperature. The effect of wall heat loss becomes weak as the equivalence is increased. The reforming efficiency drops from 0.440 to 0.424 for equivalence ratio of 2 and mixture velocity of 0.17 m/s for the predictions between adiabatic wall and non-adiabatic conditions.     

NOx formation in post-flame gases from syngas/air combustion at atmospheric pressure

Species concentration measurements specifically those associated with nitrogen oxides (NO_x) can act as important validation targets for developing kinetic models to predict NO_x emissions under syngas combustion accurately. In the present study, premixed combustion of syngas/air mixtures, with equivalence ratio (Φ) from 0.5 to 1.0 and H₂/CO ratio from 0.25 to 1.0 was conducted in a McKenna burner operating at atmospheric pressure. Temperature and NO_x concentrations were measured in the post-combustion zone. For a given H₂/CO ratio, increasing the equivalence ratio from lean to stoichiometric resulted in an increase in NO and decrease in NO₂ concentration near the flame. Increasing the H₂/CO ratio led to a decrease in the temperature as well as the NO concentration near the flame. Based on the axial profiles above the burner, NO concentration increases right above the flame while NO₂ concentration decreases through NO₂-NO conversion reactions according to the path flux analysis. In addition, the present experiments were operated in the laminar region where multidimensional transport effects play significant roles. In order to account for the radial and axial diffusive and convective coupling to chemical kinetics in laminar flow, a multidimensional model was developed to simulate the post-combustion species and temperature distribution. The measurements were compared against both multidimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and one-dimensional burner-stabilized flame simulations. The multidimensional model predictions resulted in a better agreement with the measurements, clearly highlighting the effect of multidimensional transport.     

Syngas production from polyethylene and biogas in porous media combustion

The production of syngas from biogas (surrogate of CH₄/CO₂: 55/45 v/v) and polyethylene in a porous media combustion reactor is experimentally studied. The employed setup is novel and has not been studied before. A semi-continuous feed of solid fuel and a constant filtration velocity of the gaseous reactants of 17 cm/s were considered. Temperature, velocity of propagation, and composition of the syngas produced in the combustion waves were registered in a tubular reactor packed with a ceramic foam porous medium and two solid fuel inlets. In the first part of the study, a baseline determined by the filtration combustion of a biogas/air mixture through the ceramic foam at the equivalence ratio ($\mathrm{?}$) range $0.7\le \mathrm{?}\le 1.6$, having transient (upstream and downstream) and stationary combustion wave propagation regimes, is established. In the second part of this work, portions of the ceramic foam in two different separated zones are extracted, leaving space for the semi-continuous supply of polyethylene. In this second part the biogas-air combustion was performed only for $\mathrm{?}=0.8$ and $\mathrm{?}=1.6$. Although the combustion temperature decreased by the presence of polyethylene, it was found that the syngas (both H₂ and CO) yield was larger than for the baseline. The highest degrees of conversion to hydrogen and carbon monoxide was reached under the presence of polyethylene, having 45% and 67% for $\mathrm{?}=0.8$, and 45% and 60% for $\mathrm{?}=1.6$, respectively. These results are very promising and they demonstrate the capabilities of the presented methodology and experimental setup, which should encourage future attempts of applications of the technology.     

Partial oxidation of methane in a reverse flow porous media reactor. Water admixing optimization

The influence of the addition of steam on methane–air partial oxidation in a reverse flow porous media reactor is investigated numerically. The model is validated via comparison with the experimental data obtained without steam addition. The model of chemical kinetics includes 6- component overall model and GRI 3.0 gas phase methane oxidation kinetics. It is shown that hydrogen concentration in the product gas may be increased by 0.5–1% and the methane-to-hydrogen conversion ratio by 10–15% by means of adding steam to a working mixture. The optimum equivalence ratio remains the same as in the water free case. Steam concentration which maximizes H₂ is in the range of 5–10%; steam concentration which maximizes the conversion ratio is in the range of 20–50%. The role of the thermal insulation of the reactor and of the working gas preheating in this aspect is shown quantitatively.     

Partial oxidation of methane in a reciprocal flow porous burner with an external heat source

A reciprocal flow porous burner with an external heat source in the middle section was studied numerically to access the reactor efficiency for synthesis gas generation. The temperature and species profiles were predicted using a two temperature model with a detailed chemical mechanism. The effect of the variation of the power of the external heat source on the hydrogen and carbon monoxide yields was studied. The energy conversion efficiencies of the system with various power levels of the external heat source were evaluated. It is found that H₂ and CO yields increase significantly with the addition of the external heat source due to the temperature increase in the middle section of the burner. The CO₂ emissions remain small. The methane conversion ratio increases with increase of the power of the external heat source reaching 97%. The H₂ and CO conversion ratios yields are nearly doubled as the power of the external heat source increases from 0 to 750 W. The cold gas energy conversion efficiency decreases as the power of the external heat source increases. At the same time, the syngas energy conversion efficiency increases from 41% to 70%, while hydrogen energy conversion efficiency increases from 28% to 46%.     

Combustion characteristics of a porous media burner with partial hydrogen injection

Multiple energy sources are combined to solve the shortage due to more and more energy consumption. Hydrogen as an ideal clean and renewable energy was injected to the porous media burner to realize the utilization with methane simultaneously. The numerical model of double-layer structure imported with multi-step kinetics mechanisms was built to study the effects of hydrogen injecting position and width on the combustion characteristics of methane after the experimental validation. Results indicate that the axial temperatures during the hydrogen injection at the upstream and interface positions were obviously higher than that at the downstream position. With the increasing of hydrogen injection width, the overall temperature gradually decreased, which was corresponding to the decreasing trend of CO and NO_x emissions. However, the temperature and pollutant emissions increased as the equivalence ratio of methane and hydrogen increased. In addition, the increasing of methane and hydrogen velocity increased the CO emission and decreased the NO_x emission.     

Trends in modeling of porous media combustion

Porous media combustion (PMC) has interesting advantages compared with free flame combustion due to higher burning rates, increased power dynamic range, extension of the lean flammability limits, and low emissions of pollutants. Extensive experimental and numerical works were carried out and are still underway, to explore the feasibility of this interesting technology for practical applications. For this purpose, numerical modeling plays a crucial role in the design and development of promising PMC systems. This article provides an exhaustive review of the fundamental aspects and emerging trends in numerical modeling of gas combustion in porous media. The modeling works published to date are reviewed, classified according to their objectives and presented with general conclusions. Numerical modeling of liquid fuel combustion in porous media is excluded.     

Numerical and experimental study on laminar burning velocity of syngas produced from biomass gasification in sub-atmospheric pressures

The laminar burning velocity of syngas mixtures has been studied by various researches. However, most of these studies have been conducted in atmospheric conditions at sea level. In the present study, the effect of sub atmospheric pressure was evaluated on the laminar burning velocity for a mixture of H₂, CO and N₂ (20:20:60 vol%) in real sub atmospheric condition. The measurements was conducted in an altitude of 2130 m.a.s.l (0.766 atm) and 21 m.a.s.l (0.994 atm) to evaluate the effect of pressure, the temperature and relative humidity were controlled using an air conditioning unit and was maintained in 295 ± 1 K and 62.6 ± 2.7% respectively. The Flames were generated using contoured slot-type nozzle burner, and an ICCD camera was used to capture chemiluminescence emitted by OH∗-CH∗ radicals present in the flame and thus obtain the flame front and determinate the laminar burning velocity using the angle method. The experimental results were compared with numerical calculations, conducted using the detailed mechanisms of Li et al. and the GRI-Mech 3.0. It was found that the laminar burning velocity increases at lower pressure, for an equivalence ratio of 1.1, the laminar burning velocity increases by almost 23% respect to the sea level conditions.