COMPUTATIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE USE OF HYDROGEN IN A BURNER NOWADAYS USING NATURAL GAS

Abstract

The implementation of hydrogen as a fuel in industrial applications is an upward trend, and poses a challenge for the design of furnace burners. This article aims to advance in the knowledge of hydrogen combustion, through numerical simulation using SIEMENS STAR-CCM+ code. Several simulations have been carried out with the geometry of a 2.5 MW burner of the current SIDENOR furnace. The fuel burning there, is natural gas. Using the same geometry and the same mesh, a comparison is made between current temperatures and those that would arise when burning hydrogen, as well as mass fractions of other elements such as NOx. Maintaining the power of 2.5 MW and taking into account the lower heating value of methane and hydrogen, the inlet boundary conditions are calculated for the different fuel compositions. In this way it can be seen, qualitatively, the amount of hydrogen needed to meet the necessary temperatures in the billets, without excessive NOx production. Key Words: Hydrogen, burners, Computational Fluid Dynamics, NOx