Numerical simulation of the effect of hydrogen addition fraction on catalytic micro-combustion characteristics of methane-air

CATEGORY: MICRO-COMBUSTION
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 39, Issue 4, 22 January 2014, Pages 1864–1873
Numerical simulation of the effect of hydrogen addition fraction on catalytic micro-combustion characteristics of methane-air
Yunfei Yan (a),  (b), Weimin Tang (b), Li Zhang (a),  (b), Wenli Panb, Zhongqing Yang (a),  (b), Yanrong Chen (a),  (b), Jiying Lin (b)
a Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Chongqing University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400030, PR China
b College of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, PR China
Abstract
Understanding of micro-scale combustion mechanism is key to the development of micro-power devices. Accordingly, authors investigated hydrogen assisted catalytic combustion of methane on platinum. They modeled the combustion of preheated mixtures of methane-hydrogen-air in a micro-combustor by a two-dimensional model, which included an elementary-step surface reaction mechanism.
They showed that the model could predict the effects of changes of hydrogen fraction. They also demonstrated that the mole fraction of H, OH and C(s) increase and ignition time decreases with hydrogen addition. They further demonstrated that the improving effect of hydrogen on the ignition temperature of the fuel and O(s) coverage is particularly evident at relatively low hydrogen fraction. The promotion of the combustion stability is the result of the decrease of coefficient of variation with hydrogen addition. Methane combustion moves toward the more stabilized reaction, and there is a great potential to reduce the pressure fluctuation.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319913027535