Effects of hydrogen blending and exhaust gas recirculation on NOx emissions in laminar and turbulent CH4/Air flames at 25 bar

In this work, the effect of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) on NOx emissions in a CH4/H2/air combustion at 25 bar, at an equivalence ratio ������ = 0.7, is analyzed in laminar and turbulent partially premixed flames. Numerical simulations of twenty premixed and partially premixed counterflow flames with H2 ranging from 0 to 100%, with and without EGR, are carried out. Analysis of NO formation mechanisms shows that the thermal path is the main responsible for the NOx production in each flame, with a contribution of nearly 80%. In laminar flames an increase of H2 leads to an increase in NOx emissions. The addition of the exhaust gas decreases the flame temperature and therefore NOx: each laminar flame shows a NOx reduction of about 60% with the presence of exhaust gas. Four turbulent slot jet flames with a CH4/H2/Air/EGR premixed central core and Air/EGR as coflow are studied in a two-dimensional framework using the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach and the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methodology, to take into account some flame dynamics, despite the 2D context. Accurate molecular transport properties are considered and, a reduced specifically designed chemical mechanism for methane/hydrogen-air combustion at ������ = 0.7, consisting of 48 transported species and 465 elementary reactions is adopted. The four turbulent flames were simulated with 0 and 50% hydrogen concentration, with and without EGR. The presence of hydrogen reduces CO2 emissions, but at the same time increases NO concentration, the thermal path being the main NO formation mechanism. The use of exhaust gas recirculation leads to NO reduction as in laminar flames. The results obtained in this work show that at high pressure, the hydrogen enrichment of natural gas in the EGR mode leads to lower NOx as well as CO2 emissions.