This week a new article (Article Number 200505, September 2005) has been published in the IFRF Combustion Journal (http://www.journal.ifrf.net), entitled:

“Minimizing NOx emission from a waste derived fuel gasifier gas combustor using CFD combined with detailed chemistry”

by:

Anders Brink¹, Mikko Hupa¹, Esa Kurkela² and Marjut Suomalainen²

¹ Process Chemistry Centre
Åbo Akademi University
FI-20500 Åbo
Finland

² VTT Processes
P.O. Box 1601
FI-02044 VTT
Finland

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Anders Brink
Combustion and Material Chemistry
Åbo Akademi Univeristy
Biskopsgatan 8
FI-20500
FINLAND
Tel: 358 2 215 4931
Fax: 358 2 215 4962
e-mail: anders.brink@abo.fi

Summary:

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with a detailed description of the gas phase chemistry is used to find a firing mode that minimizes emissions of nitrogen oxide. The studied combustor is fired with product gas from a waste derived fuel gasifier. First, three experiments were carried out with varying air supply and air ratio in order to gain insights into the nitrogen chemistry inside the burner. Then, CFD modeling is carried out using a mechanism considering 21 species and 54 reactions. Based on the obtained insight additional CFD calculations are performed to find a firing mode with lower NOx emission. In the optimal firing mode enough air was introduced in the upper part of the burner to obtain conditions favorable for NOx reduction through reactions between NH3 and NO. The rest of the air was supplied in the lower part of the burner using low jet velocities. If too little air was introduced in the upper part of the burner, NO was formed at the lower air level. If too much air was supplied, NO was formed in the upper part of the burner. The CFD calculations also indicate that the generally low NOx yield in this device is closely connected to the low temperature associated with combustion of low calorific gases.

Key words:

CFD, gasification, nitrogen chemistry, optimization
FULL PAPER:

The full paper may be downloaded from the server, by going to the head of the “List of Published Papers” section and selecting the paper(http://www.journal.ifrf.net/published-articles.html). When the paper displays, click on the Acrobat PDF icon alongside the title.

Publication in the Journal

The Editor-in-Chief would like to remind all potential authors that publication in the Journal is open to all. If you have interesting results to publish in the field of, or related to, industrial combustion, we invite you to prepare a paper according to the guidelines given in the Author’s Guide on the website (http://www.journal.ifrf.net/).

Papers may be regular “articles” (typically up to 20 pages) or Communications (typically up to 4/5 pages). Review papers can of course be longer. Remember that figures and graphics in general can be in full color. This advantage should be encouraged.

All manuscripts and associated files, proposed for publication should be sent by the Corresponding Author in a compressed/zip file, as an email attachment to journal@ifrf.net. This file should include a statement that the proposal’s content is unpublished material that has not being submitted for publication elsewhere. When an article by the author(s) is cited in the proposed article as “in press”, a copy of this article should accompany the proposed article and should be included in the compressed file.
The Editor-in-Chief looks forward to receiving your proposals.