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Thermal and emission performance of CH4 and H2–CH4 thermophotovoltaic micro-power generators

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Abstract

Micro-power generation can be pursued using various methods such as thermophotovoltaic and thermoelectric generators. In this study, the effects of operational conditions and addition of Hydrogen to methane on the thermal and pollution performance of thermophotovoltaic generators are studied using measurements and modeling in a CH4 and H2 thermophotovoltaic power generators. The measurements focus on key parameters including temperature, radiation efficiency, NOx emission and flame regimes. Measurements of CH4-air mixture show the high sensitivity of temperature to equivalence ratio were the cases with stoichiometric mixture and high combustor diameter have the highest mean wall temperature and NOx concentration. Moreover, the highest radiation efficiency in CH4 flames achieved in a lean mixture with equivalence ratio of 0.9 in the small diameter case. CH4-air mixture gave three flame regimes of weak flame with inlet velocity of 0.1 m/s, asymmetric flame at inlet velocity of 0.23 m/s and steady symmetric flame at inlet velocity of 0.44 m/s. When adding H2 to the fuel (20% H2 and 80% CH4), the radiation efficiency increased from 11.5 to 13.5% which is highly favorable for thermophotovoltaic applications.

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Abbreviations

D im :

Average diffusivity of the ith species (m2/s)

D ij :

Binary diffusion coefficient of the ith species in jth species (m2/s)

h :

Enthalpy (J/kg)

\({\dot{m}}_{{{\text{H}}}_{2}}\) :

Mass flow rate of the fuel

p :

Pressure (Pa)

\({\dot{Q}}_{{\text{wall}}}\) :

Heat transfer rate from the external walls

\({\dot{Q}}_{{\text{R}}}\) :

Chemical heat release rate

Q LHV :

Lower heating value of hydrogen fuel

R u :

Universal gas constant (J/kmol-K)

T :

Temperature (K)

u :

Velocity vector (m/s)

\(\overline{W }\) :

Mean molecular weight of the mixture

X i :

Mole fraction of species i

Y i :

Mass fraction of the ith species

\({\dot{Q}}_{{\text{Rad}}}\) :

Radiation heat transfer rate

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

µ :

Dynamic viscosity

λ :

Thermal diffusivity

Φ:

Equivalence ratio

\({\sigma }_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Collision diameter (A)

\({\varepsilon }_{\alpha }\) :

Lennard–Jones energy

\(\dot{{\omega }_{{\text{i}}}}\) :

Rate of reaction of the ith species

\({\Omega }_{{\text{D}}}\) :

Collision integral

\({\eta }_{Q}\) :

Energy conversion efficiency

\({\eta }_{{\text{Rad}}}\) :

Emitter efficiency

\({\eta }_{{\text{total}}}\) :

Total energy conversion efficiency of the TPV

\(\sigma\) :

Boltzmann constant

\(\varepsilon\) :

Surface emissivity

f:

Fluid

wall:

Wall

in:

Inlet

i :

iTh species

ij :

iTh species in jth species

im :

iTh species in the mixture

s:

Surface

sur:

Surrounding

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Université, 2500 Boul. de L, Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1, Canada

    Hosein Faramarzpour

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Correspondence to Hosein Faramarzpour.

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Faramarzpour, H. Thermal and emission performance of CH4 and H2–CH4 thermophotovoltaic micro-power generators. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 46, 299 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-024-04874-2

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