Emissions From Combustion of H2 and Ch4 Mixtures in Catalytic Burners for Small-Scale Heat and Power Applications

Lean premixed fuel mixtures of hydrogen and methane are tested in two different burners developed at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The burners include a catalytic burner and a catalytically supported porous inert media burner, both using commercial catalysts. The thermal loads are varied up to 15 kW. Measurements performed of CO2, O2, NOx, and CO in the flue gases verify very low emission levels. The catalytic burner shows severe loss of activity during long-term testing, whereas the catalytically supported burner indicates long-term durability. Applications for such burners could be clean and efficient small-scale combined-heat-and-power systems, either in combination with fuel cells or in Stirling engines.