Experimental and numerical studies of swirl combustion characteristics of syngas

Synthesis gas (syngas) is a potential clean fuel for gas turbine. Experiments and numerical simulations were conducted to study the combustion characteristics of syngases in premixed swirl mode using a model gas turbine swirl burner. Four different types of syngases, covering low to high H2-content were tested. Experimental work was conducted to study the emission performance of lean swirl flame. Obtained results were used as validation targets for numerical simulation using flamelet generated manifold (FGM) and chemical equilibrium (CE) approaches. The former method shows better agreement with experimental result, hence FGM method was adopted to model flame structure and predict emission species in the reaction zones for different syngas types. Result shows that syngas with high concentration of H2 produces lower peak flame temperature and height. Furthermore, high H2-rich syngas also produces low level of NO species in the reaction zone.