A kinetic study on the potential of a hybrid reaction mechanism for prediction of NOx formation in biomass grate furnaces

This paper presents the verification of a hybrid reaction mechanism (28 species, 104 reactions) by means of a kinetic study with a view to its application for the CFD-based prediction of gas phase combustion and NOx formation in biomass grate furnaces. The mechanism is based on a skeletal kinetic scheme that includes the subsets for H-2, CO, NH3 and HCN oxidation derived from the detailed Kilpinen 97 reaction mechanism. To account for the CH4 breakdown two related reactions from the 4-step global mechanism for hydrocarbons oxidation by Jones and Lindstedt were adopted. The hybrid mechanism was compared to the global mechanism and validated against the detailed Kilpinen 97 mechanism. For that purpose plug flow reactor simulations at conditions relevant to biomass combustion (atmospheric pressure, 1200-1600 K) for approximations of the flue gases in a grate furnace at fuel lean and fuel rich conditions were carried out. The hybrid reaction mechanism outperformed the global one at all conditions investigated. The most striking differences obtained in predictions by the hybrid and the detailed mechanism at the residence times prior to ignition were attributed to the simplified description of the CH4 oxidation in the case of the former. The overall agreement regarding both combustion and NOx chemistry between the hybrid and the detailed mechanism was better at fuel lean conditions than at fuel rich conditions. However, also at fuel rich conditions, the agreement was improving with increasing temperature. Moreover, it was shown that an improvement in the prediction of NOx formation by the N-subset of the hybrid reaction mechanism can be achieved by replacing its C-H-O subset with that of the detailed one.