Volume 18: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part I

Ammonia/Hydrogen/Methane Characteristic Profiles for Atmospheric Combustion Applications Mashruk S, Kovaleva M, Zitouni SE, Brequigny P, Mounaim-Rouselle C, Valera-Medina A

Abstract

Ammonia has become a chemical of interest for the economic distribution and storage of hydrogen. Utilization of this molecule has been conceived in systems that range from small Fuel Cells to large gas turbines and furnaces. Ammonia characteristics enable the reduction of carbon emissions whilst ensuring long term storage and distribution of hydrogen produced from renewable sources. However, the use of ammonia as a combustion fuel also presents various issues mainly related to low flame speed and elevated nitrogen-based emissions. Therefore, further understanding of this molecule and its combustion characteristics is required before replacement of fossil fuels using ammonia can be accomplished at large scale. Therefore, this work presents a series of experiments that depict the characteristic profiles of various ammonia/hydrogen/methane blends intended to serve as replacement of pure fossil-based fuelling sources. The study is approached through a generic tangential swirl burner which has been commissioned to burn a great variety of blends at various power outputs. Temperatures, operability, chemiluminescence of various species (OH*, NH2*, CH* and NH*), spectrometry profiles, and emissions were determined for comparison purposes at various equivalence ratios and blending conditions.

Keywords Ammonia, hydrogen, combustion, power generation