Performance of a Multiple-Injection Dry Low NOx Combustor With Hydrogen-Rich Syngas Fuels

Abstract

An oxygen-blown integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with precombustion carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is one of the most promising means of zero-emission generation of power from coal. In an IGCC plant with CCS, hydrogen-rich syngas with a wide variation of hydrogen contents is supplied to a gas turbine. Such hydrogen-rich syngas poses a great challenge to a low NOx combustor based on premixed combustion technology, because its high flame speed, low ignition energy, and broad flammability limits can cause flashback and/or autoignition. On the contrary, a diffusion combustor suffers from the high flame temperature of syngas and the resulting high NOx emission. The authors applied a “multi-injection burner” concept to a preliminary burner for hydrogen-rich syngas simulating that from IGCC with CCS. In a preliminary experiment under atmospheric pressure, the multi-injection burner worked without any flashback or any blowout. A prototype multicluster combustor based on the results of that preliminary study was made to be a dry low NOx combustor for hydrogen-rich syngas of IGCC with CCS. It was tested in experiments, which were carried out under medium pressure (0.6 MPa) using test fuels simulating syngas from IGCC with a 0% carbon capture rate, a 30% carbon capture rate, and a 50% carbon capture rate. The test fuels contained hydrogen, methane, and nitrogen, and had a hydrogen content ranging from 40% to 65%.The following conclusions were drawn from the test results: (1) the tested combustor allows the stable combustion of fuels simulating 0%, 30%, and 50% CCS, (2) a convex perforated plate swirler is effective to suppress combustion oscillation, which allows NOx emissions to be less than 10 ppm through the variation of fuel simulating 0%, 30%, and 50% CCS, (3) the extended stable combustion region and enhanced entrainment and mixing due to the convex perforated plate improves the cooling of the combustor liner metal to be less than the liner metal temperature criterion.

Frontiers in combustion techniques and burner designs for emissions control and CO2capture: A review

“…If carefully designed, MMs could approach the LDI operability characteristics. Some of the examined configurations were jetin-crossflow mixing, 242 co-flow mixing, 243 and swirlinduced mixing in miniature cups with axial and radial inflow. 244 The combustion of high-H 2 fuels using air in MMs has been examined in past studies, [238][239][240] but never under oxycombustion conditions.…”

Development of a State-of-the-Art Dry Low NOx Gas Turbine Combustor for IGCC with CCS

“…Step 1 evaluated performance of the flat burner and the convex burner by performing the single-burner combustion test in order to optimize the burner configuration. This subsection describes the development of multi-cluster combustors equipped with the flat burner and the convex burner [24,25].…”

Multiple-injection dry low-NOx combustor for hydrogen-rich syngas fuel: testing and evaluation of performance in an IGCC pilot plant

“…A prototype single-can combustor equipped with multiple-injection burners was developed on the basis of preliminary experiments. The multiple-injection combustor was tested in a single-can test rig at a medium pressure on hydrogen-rich surrogate fuels simulating coal-derived syngas, and the test results demonstrated the feasibility of achieving the dry low-NOx combustion of hydrogen-rich fuels (Dodo, et al, 2013). Next, in order to demonstrate the feasibility in IGCC plants, the combustor was tested in a multi-can configuration on a practical syngas fuel in an IGCC pilot plant.…”