The impact of oxidiser humidity on methane combustion in a gas burner

Abstract

The improvement of thermodynamic and environmental indicators of energy facilities is a vital and topical problem. Numerical simulation methods are used to investigate the processes of combustion and formation of hazardous substances by computation, and to work out recommendations on increasing the effectiveness of fuel combustion. The paper examines the impact of atmospheric air humidity on the process of combustion of a stoichiometric methane-air mixture in a burner. The combustion process is simulated in the 3D unsteady statement in Cartesian coordinates. In the investigation, the combustion of the methane-air mixture is considered in one stage. Air humidity is considered in the 0 to 100% range. The monoxide nitrogen formation process is described using the extended Zeldovich-Fenimore mechanism. A comparative study has found that increasing air humidity up to 100% reduces the mass emission of monoxide nitrogen by a factor of 1.27, as compared to dry air. The study results can be used for designing equipment that uses methane as fuel.