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Numerical and experimental investigation on the performance of lean burn catalytic combustion for gas turbine application

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Abstract

This manuscript presents our numerical and experimental results regarding the performance characteristics of lean burn catalytic combustion for gas turbine application. The reactant transport was assumed to be controlled by both bulk diffusion as well as surface kinetics, implemented by means of an approximate reaction rate equation and empirical coefficients to incorporate reaction mechanism. Experimental and numerical results were compared to examine the effects of methane mole fraction, inlet temperature, operating pressure, velocity and hydrogen species on combustion intensity. The results indicate that inlet temperature is the most significant parameter that impacts operation of the catalytic combustor and the most effective methods for improving the methane conversion are increasing the inlet temperature and increasing the methane mole fraction. Simulations from 1D heterogeneous plug flow model can capture the trend of catalytic combustion and describe the behavior of the catalytic monolith in detail. The addition of hydrogen will provide heat release by the exothermic combustion reaction so that the reactants reach a temperature at which methane oxidation can light-off.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Juan Yin & Jun-qiang Zhu

  2. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Yi-wu Weng

Authors
  1. Juan Yin
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  2. Yi-wu Weng
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  3. Jun-qiang Zhu
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Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51206160).

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Yin, J., Weng, Yw. & Zhu, Jq. Numerical and experimental investigation on the performance of lean burn catalytic combustion for gas turbine application. J. Therm. Sci. 24, 185–193 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-015-0772-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-015-0772-4

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