Features of Combustion of Hydrogen and Its Mixtures with Methane (or Natural Gas) in Boilers and Furnaces

Abstract

In the work the possibility and principles of partial or complete replacement of natural gas as a fuel with hydrogen and its mixtures with methane (or natural gas) in new and existing boilers and furnaces with a capacity of approximately 0.3-60 MWare determined. The performed calculation showed the possibility of using one diffusion burner on natural gas, hydrogen, or their mixture in any proportion and the thermal power of the burner on methane (or natural gas) and hydrogen or their mixture at the same gas pressure is close. The use of condensing boilers is preferable due to the greater amount of thermal energy (as a percentage of heat output in firebox) that is obtained by condensing water vapor from flue gases when burning hydrogen compared to burning methane (or natural gas) is showed. Some constructions of burners and boilers for burning hydrogen and its mixtures with methane (or natural gas) are proposed. The difference in specific losses during hydrogen transportation by gas pipelines for methane (or natural gas) are determined; when pure hydrogen was supplied into gas pipelines for natural gas, its leakage per unit time (m3/s) will be near 2.8 times higher, but the amount of energy lost will be less by approximately 9.2%.