Abstract
A small-scale combustor was set up to analyze the combustion of natural gas and two mixtures of partially reformed natural gas. The partially reformed mixtures can be formed using biomass to feed the endothermic reforming reactions. Before combusting these mixtures in a gas turbine, experimental work was done on a primary zone combustion chamber to examine the combustor behavior when switching from natural gas to the wet and dry hydrogen-rich mixtures. Temperature profiles, flame location and ignition limits have been investigated for a variety of stoichiometries and several air temperatures. Possible problems concerning blow-off, flashback, increased pollutant products and excessive liner wall temperatures were analyzed. It was concluded that the switch in operation from natural gas to these wet and/or dry partially reformed natural gas mixtures lowers the blow-off limits while maintaining similar liner wall temperature profiles. Furthermore, no significant changes in pollutant production were observed. Flame area, shape and position display considerable differences in combustion regime for the three tested fuel types.
Keywords:
The present work is supported by ELECTRABEL and the European Community through the Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area” Program.
Notes
1Corti et al. (Citation2004).
2Ciferno et al. (Citation2002).
3Radmanesh et al. (Citation2006).
4Natural gas composition listed in this table accounts for the Danish Natural Gas composition as used in the laboratory in Lund. Higher hydrocarbons are added to the methane content to enhance the overview of the table.
5De Ruyck et al. (Citation2005).
6Delattin et al. (2006).
1so called HAT mode.