• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.593-600
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• 2019

The combustion characteristics of methane/hydrogen pre-mixed flame have been investigated with swirl stabilized flame in a laboratory-scale pre-mixed combustor with constant heat load of 5.81 kW. Hydrogen/methane fuel and air were mixed in a pre-mixer and introduced to the combustor through a burner nozzle with different degrees of swirl angle. The effects of hydrogen addition and swirl intensity on the combustion characteristics of pre-mixed methane flames were examined using particle image velocimetry (PIV), micro-thermocouples, various optical interference filters and gas analyzers to provide information about flow velocity, temperature distributions, and species concentrations of the reaction field. The results show that higher swirl intensity creates more recirculation flow, which reduces the temperature of the reaction zone and, consequently, reduces the thermal NO production. The distributions of flame radicals (OH, CH, C₂) are dependent more on the swirl intensity than the percentage of hydrogen added to methane fuel. The NO concentration at the upper part of the reaction zone is increased with an increase in hydrogen content in the fuel mixture because higher combustibility of hydrogen assists to promote faster chemical reaction, enabling more expansion of the gases at the upper part of the reaction zone, which reduces the recirculation flow. The CO concentration in the reaction zone is reduced with an increase in hydrogen content because the amount of C content is relatively decreased.