In a new paper published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, the authors describe their investigation of the impact of air- and oxy-fuel combustion with natural gas and hydrogen on the scaling behaviour of EN 1.4307 (AISI 304L) stainless steel. The title of the study is “Experimental investigation of the oxidation behaviour of stainless steel exposed to different air- and oxy-fuel natural gas or hydrogen combustion atmospheres and temperatures during reheating on a semi-industrial scale.”

During the investigation, the residual oxygen and sample core temperature were both varied and a discontinuous gravimetric measurement method was applied. Ten samples of 20 × 20 × 65mm were used for each set. For atmosphere generation in a semi-industrial furnace, a multi-fuel and oxidiser burner was used.

The study found that the specific mass gain was most heavily dependent on the temperature, followed by the oxidiser and fuel.

In the oxy-fuel combustion mode, the presence of residual oxygen in the atmosphere and the fuel had a negligible influence. At 1200 C, switching from natural gas/air combustion to hydrogen/air combustion resulted in a 15 % increase in the specific mass gain. Switching from natural gas/air to oxy-fuel with natural gas or hydrogen resulted in a 40% increase.