Timothy C. Williams

EFFECT OF SYNGAS COMPOSITION AND CO2-DILUTED OXYGEN ON PERFORMANCE OF A PREMIXED SWIRL-STABILIZED COMBUSTOR

Future energy systems based on gasification of coal or biomass for co-production of electrical power and fuels may require gas turbine operation on unusual gaseous fuel mixtures. In addition, global climate change concerns may dictate the generation of a CO2 product stream for end-use or sequestration, with potential impacts on the oxidizer used in the gas turbine. In this study the operation at atmospheric pressure of a small, optically accessible swirl-stabilized premixed combustor, burning fuels ranging from pure methane to conventional and H2-rich and H2-lean syngas mixtures is investigated. Both air and CO2-diluted oxygen are used as oxidizers. CO and NOx emissions for these flames have been determined from the lean blowout limit to slightly rich conditions (ϕ ∼ 1.03). In practice, CO2-diluted oxygen systems will likely be operated close to stoichiometric conditions to minimize oxygen consumption while achieving acceptable NOx performance. The presence of hydrogen in the syngas fuel mixtures results in more compact, higher temperature flames, resulting in increased flame stability and higher NOx emissions. Consistent with previous experience, the stoichiometry of lean blowout decreases with increasing H2 content in the syngas. Similarly, the lean stoichiometry at which CO emissions become significant decreases with increasing H2 content. For the mixtures investigated, CO emissions near the stoichiometric point do not become significant until ϕ > 0.95. At this stoichiometric limit, CO emissions rise more rapidly for combustion in O2–CO2 mixtures than for combustion in air.

Idealized gas turbine combustor for performance research and validation of large eddy simulations

This paper details the design of a premixed, swirl-stabilized combustor that was designed and built for the express purpose of obtaining validation-quality data for the development of large eddy simulations (LES) of gas turbine combustors. The combustor features nonambiguous boundary conditions, a geometrically simple design that retains the essential fluid dynamics and thermochemical processes that occur in actual gas turbine combustors, and unrestrictive access for laser and optical diagnostic measurements. After discussing the design detail, a preliminary investigation of the performance and operating envelope of the combustor is presented. With the combustor operating on premixed methane/air, both the equivalence ratio and the inlet velocity were systematically varied and the flame structure was recorded via digital photography. Interesting lean flame blowout and resonance characteristics were observed. In addition, the combustor exhibited a large region of stable, acoustically clean combustion that is suitable for preliminary validation of LES models.

Simultaneous correction of flat field and nonlinearity response of intensified charge-coupled devices

Intensified charge-coupled devices (ICCDs) are used extensively in many scientific and engineering environments to image weak or temporally short optical events. Care has to be taken in interpreting the images from ICCDs if quantitative results are required. In particular, nonuniform gain (flat field) and nonlinear response effects must be properly accounted for. Traditional flat-field corrections can only be applied in the linear regime of the ICCD camera, which limits the usable dynamic range. This paper reports a more general approach to image correction whereby the nonlinear gain response of each pixel of the ICCD is characterized over the full dynamic range of the camera. Image data can then be corrected for the combined effects of nonuniform gain and nonlinearity. The results from a two-color pyrometry measurement of soot field temperature are used to illustrate the capabilities of the new correction approach.

CONTAMINATION OF CARBON MONOXIDE WITH METAL CARBONYLS: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMBUSTION RESEARCH

Abstract In a study on syngas combustion in a swirl-stabilized combustor, red deposits quickly formed on the quartz combustor walls, preventing laser diagnostic measurements. Analysis of the deposit showed that is was composed of iron and nickel. A literature review revealed that typical pressurized cylinders of CO, even at the highest CO purity level, contain up to 100 ppmv of iron pentacarbonyl and somewhat smaller levels of nickel tetracarbonyl. Only semiconductor grade CO stored in aluminum cylinders has sub-ppm levels of carbonyls. The demonstrated strong flame inhibition effect of carbonyls suggests that the use of CO from steel cylinders in combustion experiments may affect studies of flame ignition or extinction, in addition to the effect of particle formation and deposition observed here.

OH-Planar Fluorescence Measurements of Pressurized, Hydrogen Premixed Flames in the SimVal Combustor

Planar laser-induced fluorescence measurements of the hydroxyl radical in lean, premixed natural gas flames augmented with hydrogen are presented. The experiments were conducted in the Simulation Validation combustor at the National Energy Technology Laboratory at operating pressures from 1 to 8 atmospheres. The data, which were collected in a combustor with well-controlled boundary conditions, are intended to be used for validating computational fluid dynamics models under conditions directly relevant to land-based gas turbine engines. The images, which show significant effects of hydrogen on local flame quenching, are discussed in terms of a turbulent premixed combustion regime and nondimensional parameters such as Karlovitz number. Pressure was found to thin the OH region, but only had a secondary effect on overall flame shape compared with the effects of hydrogen addition, which was found to decrease local quenching and shorten the turbulent flame brush. A method to process the individual images based on local gradients of fluorescence intensity is proposed, and results are presented. Finally, the results of several large eddy simulations are presented and compared with the experimental data in an effort to understand the issues related to model validation, especially for simulations that do not include OH as an intermediate species.

Evaluation of the irising effect of a slow-gating intensified charge-coupled device on laser-induced incandescence measurements of soot

Intensified charge-coupled devices (ICCDs) are used extensively in many scientific and engineering environments to image weak or temporally short optical events. To optimize the quantum efficiency of light collection, many of these devices are chosen to have characteristic intensifier gate times that are relatively slow, on the order of tens of nanoseconds. For many measurements associated with nanosecond laser sources, such as scattering-based diagnostics and most laser-induced fluorescence applications, the signals rise and decay sufficiently fast during and after the laser pulse that the intensifier gate may be set to close after the cessation of the signal and still effectively reject interferences associated with longer time scales. However, the relatively long time scale and complex temporal response of laser-induced incandescence (LII) of nanometer-sized particles (such as soot) offer a difficult challenge to the use of slow-gating ICCDs for quantitative measurements. In this paper, ultraviolet Rayleigh scattering imaging is used to quantify the irising effect of a slow-gating scientific ICCD camera, and an analysis is conducted of LII image data collected with this camera as a function of intensifier gate width. The results demonstrate that relatively prompt LII detection, generally desirable to minimize the influences of particle size and local gas pressure and temperature on measurements of the soot volume fraction, is strongly influenced by the irising effect of slow-gating ICCDs.

Effect of Syngas Composition and CO2-Diluted Oxygen on Performance of a Premixed Swirl-Stabilized Combustor

Future energy systems based on solid fuel gasification for co-production of power and fuels may require gas turbine operation on unusual gas fuel mixtures. In addition, global climate change concerns may dictate the production of a CO2 product stream for end-use or sequestration, with potential impacts on the oxidizer used in the gas turbine. In this study the operation at atmospheric pressure of a small, optically accessible swirl-stabilized premixed combustor is investigated when burning fuels ranging from pure methane to shifted or filtered syngas mixtures. Both air and CO2 -diluted oxygen are used as oxidizers. CO and NOx emissions for these flames have been determined over the full operation range from lean blowout to slightly rich conditions. In practice, CO2 -diluted oxygen systems will likely be operated close to stoichiometric conditions to minimize oxygen consumption. The presence of hydrogen in the syngas fuel mixtures results in compact, high temperature flames, resulting in increased flame stability and higher NOx emissions. The lean blowout limit decreases with increasing H2 content in the syngas. Similarly, CO emissions for lean stoichiometries decrease with increasing H2 content. CO emissions near the stoichiometric combustion point do not become significant until φ > 0.95, at which point CO emissions rise more rapidly for combustion in O2 -CO2 mixtures than for combustion in air.Copyright

Novel metal-organic frameworks for efficient stationary sources via oxyfuel combustion

Oxy-fuel combustion is a well-known approach to improve the heat transfer associated with stationary energy processes. Its overall penetration into industrial and power markets is constrained by the high cost of existing air separation technologies for generating oxygen. Cryogenic air separation is the most widely used technology for generating oxygen but is complex and expensive. Pressure swing adsorption is a competing technology that uses activated carbon, zeolites and polymer membranes for gas separations. However, it is expensive and limited to moderate purity O₂ . MOFs are cutting edge materials for gas separations at ambient pressure and room temperature, potentially revolutionizing the PSA process and providing dramatic process efficiency improvements through oxy-fuel combustion. This LDRD combined (1) MOF synthesis, (2) gas sorption testing, (3) MD simulations and crystallography of gas siting in pores for structure-property relationship, (4) combustion testing and (5) technoeconomic analysis to aid in real-world implementation.