Mixture Temperature-Controlled combustion: a revolutionary concept for ultra-low NO$_x$ emission

TL;DR

Mixture Temperature-Controlled combustion is a new approach that significantly reduces NOx emissions and offers stable, low-noise, and potentially more stable combustion suitable for practical applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces Mixture Temperature-Controlled combustion as a novel method that achieves 50% NOx reduction without compromising stability, differing from existing techniques like flameless combustion.

Findings

50% reduction in NOx emissions compared to V-shaped flames

Stable flame up to an equivalence ratio of 0.57

Lower tendency to thermoacoustic instabilities

Abstract

Mixture Temperature-Controlled (MTC) combustion is a novel concept, offering 50% reduction in NOx emission compared to V-shaped flames without a known compromise. The flame was stable up to an equivalence ratio of 0.57, which was followed by blowout as the lean flammability limit was approached. Lean combustion also means reduced flame propagation speed, being another key feature to keep the flame lifted and facilitating homogeneous mixture formation. It was observed that distributed combustion was easier to achieve under leaner conditions. Unlike flameless combustion or exhaust gas recirculation techniques, such as MILD combustion, the oxidizer can be ambient air, offering robust realization in practical applications. The distributed flame is characterized by low flame luminosity and noise. Its acoustic spectrum contains geometry-related components principally. Hence, it is hypothesized that this concept also has a lower tendency to thermoacoustic instabilities than V-shaped flames.