Simulation of nitrogen emissions in a premixed hydrogen flame stabilized on a low swirl burner

There is considerable interest in developing fuel-flexible, low emissions turbines for power generation. One approach is based on burning a variety of lean premixed fuels with relatively low flame temperatures. Such flames can be stabilized in a low swirl burner configuration, for example, using a variety of fuels such as pure hydrogen and hydrogen-seeded hydrocarbon mixtures. However, many hydrogen-rich fuels are thermodiffusively unstable and burn in cellular flame structures, which can have a significant impact on the local nitrogen chemistry. These cellular burning patterns are characterized by a local enhancement of fuel concentration and a corresponding increase in local flame temperature just downstream. In turn, these regions become sites for enhanced thermal NOx production. The structure of these cells, and their impact on the net emissions of a flame is influenced by the global flame stabilization mechanisms and by local turbulence properties. Here we investigate the role of thermodiffusive instabilities on NOx emissions in the context of a laboratory-scale low swirl burner fueled with a lean hydrogen-air mixture at atmospheric pressure. The simulations show how the cellular burning structures characteristic of lean premixed hydrogen combustion lead to local and global enhancements in the NOx emissions. We quantify the chemical pathways that lead to the formation of NO and N2O, and how they are enhanced within local regions of intense burning. (C) 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.