Kinetic analysis on premixed oxy-fuel combustion of coal pyrolysis gas at ultra-rich conditions: Selective combustion and super-adiabatic flame temperatures

Oxy-fuel combustion of coal pyrolysis gas has recently been proposed to serve as internal heat source of a vertical low-temperature pyrolysis furnace, in order to make the output pyrolysis gas nearly free of nitrogen and widely useful. To keep the pyrolysis temperature and the heat carrier gas volume unchanged from air combustion to oxy-fuel combustion, the equivalence ratio has to be increased up to 8. To explore the flame temperature and species variation at this ultra-rich condition, freely propagating premixed oxy-fuel flames of a typical coal pyrolysis gas at equivalence ratios of 0.5–10 are numerically studied with detailed chemistry. It is found that super-adiabatic flame temperatures (SAFT) occur at equivalence ratios larger than 3 for the considered pyrolysis gas and the SAFT magnitude is 294 K at equivalence ratio of 8. Due to the high H2 mole fraction (46%) in the pyrolysis gas, preferential diffusion plays a negligible role in the SAFT feature. Global net production of CO and H2 by the rich combustion only occurs at moderate equivalence ratio ranges, which are 1.5–8 and 3–5.5 respectively for the two species. At equivalence ratio of 8, the three fuel components are all net consumed following the mole ratio of CH4:CO:H2 = 1:0.07:0.84. Kinetic analysis reveals three factors responsible for the reaction mechanism change with the increase in equivalence ratio. Firstly, the lack of H-radical and the decrease in temperature result in the disappearance of the H2 production peak in the initial stage. Secondly, HO2 attack to CO prevails and hence contribution of CO oxidation in the initial stage increases. Thirdly, the long lasting OH attack to CO and H2 leads to the weakened CO and H2 production rate in the final stage.