Influential parameters of nitrogen oxides emissions for microturbine swirl burner with pilot burner

Abstract

Swirl burners are the most common type of device in wide range of applications, including gas turbine combustors. Due to their characteristics, swirl flows are extensively used in combustion systems because they enable high energy conversion in small volume with good stabilization behavior over the wide operating range. The flow and mixing process generated by the swirl afford excellent flame stability and reduced NOx emissions. Experimental investigation of NOx emission of a purposely designed micro turbine gas burner with pilot burner is presented. Both burners are equipped with swirlers. Mixtures of air and fuel are introduced separately: through the inner swirler - primary mixture for pilot burner, and through the outer swirler - secondary mixture for main burner. The effects of swirl number variations for the both burners were investigated, including parametric variations of the thermal power and air coefficient. It was found that the outer swirler affects the emission of NOx only for the air coefficient less than 1.4. The increase of swirl number resulted in decrease of NOx emission. The inner swirler and thermal power were found to have negligible effect on emission.

Keywords

• Burner
• Swirl
• Nitrogen Oxides