An experimental and numerical investigation of CO2 dilute, oxy-fuel combustion in a reciprocating engine using mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen

Introducing renewable hydrogen into the gas supply would have several impacts on conventional natural gas (NG) combustors, including increasing flame speed, raising flame temperature and promoting the formation of nitrous oxides (NOx). The latter, undesirable effect can be entirely avoided with advanced, end-use technologies such as oxy-fuel combustors. These combustors use pure oxygen instead of air as the oxidizing agent in the combustion process, producing a CO2-rich exhaust that is more amenable to carbon capture and sequestration than that of conventional combustors. With hydrogen present in the gas supply, it is possible to prevent instability that is prevalent in pure NG, oxy-fuel combustors. A reciprocating engine test bench will be utilized to characterize key CO2 dilute, oxy-fuel combustion phenomena and stability for different blends of NG and hydrogen.