Atsushi Horikawa

Numerical and Experimental Characterization of Low NOx Micromix Combustion Principle for Industrial Hydrogen Gas Turbine Applications

The international effort to reduce the environmental impact of electricity generation, especially CO2-emissions requires considerations about alternative energy supply systems. An effective step towards low pollution power generation is the application of hydrogen as a possible alternative gas turbine fuel, if the hydrogen is produced by renewable energy sources, such as wind energy or biomass. The use of hydrogen and hydrogen rich gases as a fuel for industrial applications and power generation combined with the control of polluted emissions, especially NOx, is a major key driver in the design of future gas turbine combustors.The micromix combustion principle allows a secure and low NOx combustion of hydrogen and air and achieves a significant reduction of NOx-emissions. The combustion principle is based on cross-flow mixing of air and gaseous pure hydrogen and burns in multiple miniaturized diffusion-type flames. For the characterization of the jet in cross-flow mixing process, the momentum flux ratio is used.The paper presents an experimental analysis of the momentum flux ratio’s impact on flame anchoring and on the resultant formation of the NOx-emissions. Therefore several prototype test burner with different momentum flux ratios are tested under preheated atmospheric conditions. The investigation shows that the resultant positioning and anchoring of the micro flames highly influences the NOx-formation.Besides the experimental investigations, numerical simulations have been performed by the application of a commercial CFD code. The cold flow simulation results show the mixing of the air and hydrogen after the injection, in particular in the Counter Rotating Vortices (CRV). Furthermore, the hydrogen jet interacts also with another vortex system resulting from a wake flow area behind the combustor geometry. Furthermore, reacting flow simulations have been performed by the application of a Hybrid Eddy Break-Up (EBU) combustion model. The combustion pressure has been varied from atmospheric conditions up to a pressure of 16 bar.The experimental and numerical results highlight further potential of the micromix combustion principle for low NOx-combustion of hydrogen in industrial gas turbine applications.Copyright

Development of a Lean Staged Combustor for Small Aero-Engines

As the amount of air traffic is rapidly increasing, the local air quality around airports and the global climate change are two major concerns. Under the circumstances, the regulation for NOx emission becomes more stringent year after year. Lean burn technology is one of the key technologies for the next generation civil aircraft engines. Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has been developing a Lean Pre-mixed Pre-vaporized (LPP) combustor for around 10,000 lb thrust class engine under the project of Environmentally Compatible Aircraft Engines for Small Aircraft (ECO)[1] led by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).In this paper the results of the LPP combustor development about reducing NOx emissions is presented. The LPP burner main premixed duct is designed to have better mixing fuel and air. KHI have achieved 30%CAEP4 NOx without deterioration of the other combustor performance. In general altitude relight would be one of the weak points for LPP combustion system. Successful lights were confirmed up to 30kft altitude condition in the multi sector rig, which is as good as that of the conventional combustors. Several LPP burners have been developed through CFD results. The burners have been spray-tested and combustion-tested in a single burner test rig in order to improve the burner potential. The burners selected in the single sector tests have been evaluated in a multi sector combustor rig with several combustor configurations. This paper describes the multi sector test results together with the brief introduction on burner development activities through burner tests.© 2012 ASME

Experimental and Numerical Study on Optimizing the DLN Micromix Hydrogen Combustion Principle for Industrial Gas Turbine Applications

Combined with the use of renewable energy sources for its production, hydrogen represents a possible alternative gas turbine fuel for future low emission power generation. Due to the difference in the physical properties of hydrogen compared to other fuels such as natural gas, well-established gas turbine combustion systems cannot be directly applied to Dry Low NOx (DLN) hydrogen combustion.The DLN Micromix combustion of hydrogen has been under development for many years, since it has the promise to significantly reduce NOx emissions. This combustion principle for air-breathing engines is based on cross-flow mixing of air and gaseous hydrogen. Air and hydrogen react in multiple miniaturized diffusion-type flames with an inherent safety against flash-back and with low NOx-emissions due to a very short residence time of the reactants in the flame region.The paper presents an advanced DLN Micromix hydrogen application. The experimental and numerical study shows a combustor configuration with a significantly reduced number of enlarged fuel injectors with high thermal power output at constant energy density. Larger fuel injectors reduce manufacturing costs, are more robust and less sensitive to fuel contamination and blockage in industrial environments.The experimental and numerical results confirm the successful application of high energy injectors, while the DLN Micromix characteristics of the design point, under part load conditions and under off-design operation are maintained. Atmospheric test rig data on NOx emissions, optical flame structure and combustor material temperatures are compared to numerical simulations and show good agreement.The impact of the applied scaling and design laws on the miniaturized Micromix flamelets is particularly investigated numerically for the resulting flow field, the flame structure and NOx formation.© 2015 ASME

Suppression of NOx Emission of a Lean Staged Combustor for an Aircraft Engine

Due to the increasing demands for environment protection, the regulation of NOx emissions from aircraft engines specified by ICAO have become more stringent year by year. A combustor with lean staged fuel injectors is one of the effective methods to reduce NOx emissions. Kawasaki heavy industries Ltd GTBC and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have been conducting joint research on a lean staged concentric fuel nozzle for a high pressure ratio aero engine. High pressure combustion tests were performed to clarify the effect of the contour of the air flow passage of the main premix duct, the arrangement of the swilers and the fuel injection position on the NOx emission especially at high power. Visualization of the fuel spray at elevated pressure inside of the premix duct using a model with transparent walls and a laser diagnostics technique showed clear relationship between the distribution of the fuel spray and the NOx emission.Copyright

Improvement on Ignition Performance for a Lean Staged Low NOx Combustor

KHI (Kawasaki heavy industries Ltd, Japan) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have been working together since 2004 to improve lean staged concentric fuel injector technologies. One of the weak points of a lean staged fuel injector is said to be ignition / light around performance. Ignition characteristics were assessed on several fuel injector configurations in burner tests. Laser diagnosis, CFD analysis and high-speed video camera recording were used to understand the effect of fuel injector geometry on fuel spray distribution and ignition characteristics. They showed a clear relationship between the burner geometry and ignition characteristics. Light around characteristics was evaluated with the burner configuration optimized in burner tests. Light around performance deteriorated in multi sector unit compared to that in burner test. CFD analysis and some ignition tests with different configuration of combustor gave a clue to restore the light around characteristics deteriorated in multi sector unit.Copyright

Numerical Study on Increased Energy Density for the DLN Micromix Hydrogen Combustion Principle

Combined with the use of renewable energy sources for its production, hydrogen represents a possible alternative gas turbine fuel within future low emission power generation. Due to the large difference in the physical properties of hydrogen compared to other fuels such as natural gas, well established gas turbine combustion systems cannot be directly applied for Dry Low NOx (DLN) hydrogen combustion. Thus, the development of DLN hydrogen combustion technologies is an essential and challenging task for the future of hydrogen fuelled gas turbines.The DLN Micromix combustion principle for hydrogen fuel is being developed since years to significantly reduce NOx-emissions. This combustion principle is based on cross-flow mixing of air and gaseous hydrogen which reacts in multiple miniaturized diffusion-type flames. The major advantages of this combustion principle are the inherent safety against flashback and the low NOx-emissions due to a very short residence time of reactants in the flame region of the micro-flames.For the low NOx Micromix hydrogen application the paper presents a numerical study showing the further potential to reduce the number of hydrogen injectors by increasing the hydrogen injector diameter significantly by more than 350% resulting in an enlarged diffusion-type flame size. Experimental data is compared to numerical results for one configuration with increased hydrogen injector size and two different aerodynamic flame stabilization design laws.The applied design law for aerodynamic stabilization of the miniaturized flamelets is scaled according to the hydrogen injector size while maintaining equal thermal energy output and significantly low NOx emissions. Based on this parameter variation study the impact of different geometric parameters on flow field, flame structure and NOx formation is investigated by the numerical study.The numerical results show that the low NOx emission characteristics and the Micromix flame structure are maintained at larger hydrogen injector size and reveal even further potential for energy density increase and a reduction of combustor complexity and production costs.© 2014 ASME

Experimental and Numerical Characterization of the Dry Low NOx Micromix Hydrogen Combustion Principle at Increased Energy Density for Industrial Hydrogen Gas Turbine Applications

In the future low pollution power generation can be achieved by application of hydrogen as a possible alternative gas turbine fuel if the hydrogen is produced by renewable energy sources such as wind energy or biomass. The utilization of existing IGCC power plant technology with the combination of low cost coal as a bridge to renewable energy sources such as biomass can support the international effort to reduce the environmental impact of electricity generation. Against this background the dry low NOx Micromix combustion principle for hydrogen is developed for years to significantly reduce NOx emissions. This combustion principle is based on cross-flow mixing of air and gaseous hydrogen and burns in multiple miniaturized diffusion-type flames. The two advantages of this principle are the inherent safety against flash-back and the low NOx concentrations due to a very short residence time of reactants in the flame region of the micro-flames.The paper presents experimental results showing the significant reduction of NOx emissions at high equivalence ratios and at simultaneously increased energy density under preheated atmospheric conditions. Furthermore the paper presents the feasibility of enlarged Micromix hydrogen injectors reducing the number of required injectors of a full-scale Micromix combustion chamber while maintaining the thermal energy output with significantly low NOx formation.The experimental investigations are accompanied by 3D numerical reacting flow simulations based on a simplified hydrogen combustion model. Comparison with experimental results shows good agreement with respect to flame structure, shape and anchoring position. Thus, the experimental and numerical results highlight further potential of the Micromix combustion principle for low NOx combustion of hydrogen in industrial gas turbine applications.Copyright

Gas flow simulation and visualization in cylinder of motor-cycle engine

In gasoline engines for motorcycles, there are various restrictions on the intake duct shape imposed by the limitations of the engine mounting space and layout. The intake duct shape (intake port and manifold shape) has a great influence on the in-cylinder flow (swirl and tumble flow). Therefore, the fundamental technologies of flow visualization experiments and numerical simulation are needed for the design of high-performance engines. In this paper, we present good agreement of results by visualization experiments and numerical simulations of in-cylinder flow for such factors as flow pattern and swirl ratio.