NOx Emissions Assessment of a Multijet Burner Operated With Premixed High Hydrogen Natural Gas Blends

Abstract

Decarbonization of gas turbine combustion creates a pressing demand for new technical solutions for the combustion process. While switching to hydrogen fuels may solve the problem of carbon emissions and associated pollutants, it can also lead to stability issues for swirl-stabilized combustors due to its increased reactivity. However, with jet flame burner systems, the required flashback safety can be achieved with high axial flow velocities even for premixed combustion of 100% hydrogen fuel. The development of such an engineering solution, however, requires significant effort to reach the maturity of today's swirl burners. This study examines the capacity of a premixed multitube jet burner to manage the chemical reactivity change over a range of volumetric blends from pure natural gas (NG) to pure hydrogen fuel. NOx emissions are measured and analyzed for atmospheric tests. The changes in emissions originate not only from altered combustion chemistry but also from changes in flame shape and turbulence intensity. To get a deeper understanding of the NOx formation process, a low-order model is designed and compared to the experimental data of technically and perfectly premixed combustion tests. Parameter variations of the low-order model are conducted to assess the influences on the NOx emission production of the multijet burner. The information on the combustion process required for the model is obtained computationally and experimentally. Therefore, flame images are recorded and analyzed.