Effect of CO2 dilution on laminar burning velocities, combustion characteristics and NOx emissions of CH4/air mixtures

Abstract The laminar combustion characteristics of CH 4 /air premixed flames with CO 2 addition are systemically studied. Experimental measurements and numerical simulations of the laminar burning velocity (LBV) are performed in CH 4 /CO 2 /Air flames with various CO 2 doping ratio under equivalence ratios of 1.0–1.4. GRI 3.0 mech and Aramco mech are employed for predicting LBV, adiabatic flame temperature (AFT), important intermediate radicals (CH 3 , H, OH, O) and NO x emissions (NO, NO 2 , N 2 O), as well as the sensitivity analysis is also conducted. The detail analysis of experiment and simulation reveals that as the CO 2 addition increases from 0% to 40%, the LBVs and AFTs decrease monotonously. Under the same CO 2 doping ratio, the LBVs and AFTs increase first and then decrease with the increase of equivalence ratio, and the maximum of LBV is reached at equivalence ratio of 1.05. The mole fraction tendency of important intermediates and NO x with equivalence ratio and CO 2 doping ratio are similar to the LBVs and AFTs. Reaction H + O 2 ⇔ O + OH is found to be responsible for the promotion of the generation of important intermediates and NO x under the equivalence ratios and CO 2 addition through sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity coefficients of elementary reactions that the increasing of CO 2 doping ratio promotes or inhibits formation of intermediate radicals and NO x decreases. Graphical abstract