Numerical investigation of ammonia-propane cofiring characteristics utilizing air and hydrogen peroxide as oxidizers

Abstract

In the present study, we have investigated the impact of introducing different amounts of hydrogen peroxide into the air on the co-combustion behavior of propane and ammonia. Various combustion criteria including flame speed, ignition delay, heat release, NO emission, and reaction pathways have been explored within different compositions of propane/ammonia/air/hydrogen peroxide. This investigation has been performed through the kinetic study applying a detailed mechanism compromising 188 species and 1604 reactions. According to the findings, air replacement by hydrogen peroxide might improve the laminar burning velocity, heat release rate, flame temperature. The substantial reactivity of hydrogen peroxide leads to a significant increase in OH and H radicals, consequently accelerating the reaction rates as the hydrogen peroxide content in the oxidizer increases. The reaction H + O₂↔O + OH (R906) plays the most significant role in enhancing flame propagation in a fuel/air mixture. However, as the hydrogen peroxide content in the mixture increases, the influence of this reaction diminishes, and the reaction H₂O₂(+M)↔2OH(+M) (R929) becomes more dominant. Initially, NO levels increase with the addition of hydrogen peroxide, but they start to decline at higher proportions of hydrogen peroxide. The initial increase may be attributed to the higher flame temperature, while the subsequent decrease could be linked to a substantial reduction in atmospheric nitrogen levels in the oxidizer. In situations where, pure hydrogen peroxide is used as the oxidizer, there is no production of NO_x in pure propane combustion due to the lack of nitrogen. When compared to pure ammonia combustion, cofiring results in approximately half the amount of NO_x emissions.