Combustion features of CH4/NH3/H2 ternary blends

The use of so-called “green” hydrogen for decarbonisation of the energy and propulsion sectors has attracted considerable attention over the last couple of decades. Although advancements are achieved, hydrogen still presents some constraints when used directly in power systems such as gas turbines. Therefore, another vector such as ammonia can serve as a chemical to transport and distribute green hydrogen whilst its use in gas turbines can limit combustion reactivity compared to hydrogen for better operability. However, pure ammonia on its own shows slow, complex reaction kinetics which requires its doping by more reactive molecules, thus ensuring greater flame stability. It is expected that in forthcoming years, ammonia will replace natural gas (with ∼90% methane in volume) in power and heat production units, thus making the co-firing of ammonia/methane a clear path towards replacement of CH4 as fossil fuel. Hydrogen can be obtained from the pre-cracking of ammonia, thus denoting a clear path towards decarbonisation by the use of ammonia/hydrogen blends. Therefore, ammonia/methane/hydrogen might be co-fired at some stage in current combustion units, hence requiring a more intrinsic analysis of the stability, emissions and flame features that these ternary blends produce. In return, this will ensure that transition from natural gas to renewable energy generated e-fuels such as so-called “green” hydrogen and ammonia is accomplished with minor detrimentals towards equipment and processes. For this reason, this work presents the analysis of combustion properties of ammonia/methane/hydrogen blends at different concentrations. A generic tangential swirl burner was employed at constant power and various equivalence ratios. Emissions, OH∗/NH∗/NH2∗/CH∗ chemiluminescence, operability maps and spectral signatures were obtained and are discussed. The extinction behaviour has also been investigated for strained laminar premixed flames. Overall, the change from fossils to e-fuels is led by the shift in reactivity of radicals such as OH, CH, CN and NH2, with an increase of emissions under low and high ammonia content. Simultaneously, hydrogen addition improves operability when injected up to 30% (vol), an amount at which the hydrogen starts governing the reactivity of the blends. Extinction strain rates confirm phenomena found in the experiments, with high ammonia blends showing large discrepancies between values at different hydrogen contents. Finally, a 20/55/25% (vol) methane/ammonia/hydrogen blend seems to be the most promising at high equivalence ratios (1.2), with no apparent flashback, low emissions and moderate formation of NH2/OH radicals for good operability.