A Comparative Study of NOx Emission Characteristics in a Fuel Staging and Air Staging Combustor Fueled with Partially Cracked Ammonia

Recently, ammonia is emerging as a potential source of energy in power generation and industrial sectors. One of the main concerns with ammonia combustion is the large amount of NO emission. Air staging is a conventional method of reducing NO emission which is similar to the Rich-Burn, Quick-Mix, Lean-Burn (RQL) concept. In air-staged combustion, a major reduction of NO emission is based on the near zero NO emission at fuel-rich combustion of NH3/Air mixture. A secondary air stream is injected for the oxidation of unburned hydrogen and NHx. On the other hand, in fuel-staged combustion, NO emission is reduced by splitting NH3 injection, which promotes the thermal DeNOx process. In this study, NOx emission characteristics of air-staged and fuel-staged combustion of partially cracked ammonia mixture are numerically investigated. First, the combustion system is modeled by a chemical reactor network of a perfectly stirred reactor and plug flow reactor with a detailed chemistry mechanism. Then, the effects of ammonia cracking, residence time, and staging scheme on NOx emission are numerically analyzed. Finally, the limitations and optimal conditions of each staging scheme are discussed.