Effect of hydrogen-blended natural gas on combustion stability and emission of water heater burner

Abstract

To study the effect of hydrogen-blended natural gas on the combustion stability and emission of domestic gas water heater, a test system is built in this paper, taking a unit of the partial premixed burner commonly used in water heaters as the object. Under the heat load of 0.7–2.3 kW, the changes of flame shape, burner temperature and pollutant emission of natural gas with hydrogen volume ratio of 0–40% are studied with independent control of primary air supply and mixing. The results show that: with the increase of hydrogen blending ratio, the inner flame height increases firstly and then reduces, while the change of burner temperature is opposite. The maximum inner flame height and the minimum temperature of the burner both appear at the hydrogen blending ratio of 10–20%. It can be seen that the limit of hydrogen blending ratio which can maintain the burner operate safely and stably under rated heat load is 40% through the maximum temperature distribution on the burner surface. The CO emission in the flue gas gradually decreases with the increase of hydrogen blending ratio, while the NOx emission fluctuates slightly when the hydrogen blending ratio is less than 20%, but then decreases gradually.

Keywords

• Hydrogen-blended natural gas
• Partial premixed burner
• Controlled premixing
• Combustion stability
• Emission