Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Superheated Liquid Fuel Injection on the Combustion Characteristics of Lean Premixed Flames

Abstract The effect of superheated liquid fuel injection on the performance and emissions of a single nozzle combustor was investigated. Combustion of the lean premixed flames was achieved using a combination of jet and swirl as a stabilization method. In a nonreactive setup, the optimum transition temperature of Jet A-1 fuel from liquid to superheated vaporized state was analyzed. In a subsequent reactive setup, a series of tests were conducted with the liquid fuel at low and elevated temperatures. The experiments were conducted at ambient pressure and various air and fuel preheat temperatures, axial swirlers, thermal powers, adiabatic flame temperatures, and flame tube diameters. Concentrations of nitric oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the flue gas were measured. The operating conditions were systematically selected according to the design of experiments (DOE) method. The results showed that the adiabatic flame temperature caused the most significant change in combustion emissions and the position and shape of the reaction zone, while the superheated fuel injection had only a minor effect because the liquid fuel droplets were largely vaporized before entering the reaction zone through the integration of a swirler and a prefilmer. The use of the axial swirler and prefilmer allowed the combustor to operate in both spray and fully vaporized fuel conditions. As a result, very low emission concentrations of NOx (≈5 ppm) and CO (≈6 ppm) were achieved. The median flame length and height above the burner of the characterized flames showed competitive values of 32 mm and 50 mm, respectively. Lean blowout limits of less than 1500 K were achieved. Two different flame modes were observed during the experiments. By increasing the bulk velocity of the combustor, its hysteresis was resolved, resulting in stable and reliable flames with a wide low-NOx operating range.