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Show Abstract Low NOx Production through Lean Premixed Combustion M.R. Johnson, R.K. Cheng* and L.W. Kostiuk Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G8 *Energy and Environment Division Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Berkeley, California, USA, 94720 An approach using fuel lean premixed combustion is being explored in an attempt to reduce NOx emissions from high temperature gas phase burners. Lean premixed flames have product gas temperatures much lower than stoichiometric, fuel rich, or diffusion flames and as a results produce less NOx. The historical difficulty in the practical use of lean premixed combustion has been the very narrow stability limits exhibited by these flames and are susceptible to blow-off. This paper is a preliminary exploration of novel and simple methods to increase the stability limits of these flames. The method employed here is ti use a ring stabilizer that can anchor flames aerodynamically over a wide range of both laminar and turbulent conditions. Results show that this method pennits flames to be stabilized down to an equivalence ratio of 0.5 and at flow rates up to eight times greater than those of standard burners. The ring stabilized flames are also insensitive to turbulence in the reactant flow. These results allow the use of lean premixed flames with their low NOx emissions to be considered for commercial and industrial burners. 5 |
