Fuel effects on lean blowout and emissions from a well-stirred reactor

The design and development of low-emission, lean premixed aero- and industrial gas-turbine combustors is challenging because of a need to satisfy conflicting requirements of operability, combustion performance, and low emissions. A toroidal well-stirred reactor (WSR) is a laboratory idealization of a compact primary zone of a gas-turbine combustor. Such a WSR was designed, built, and operated at atmospheric pressure to study lean blowout and emissions of CO, unburned hydrocarbons, and NOx over a range of residence time and fuel-air ratios. A variety of normal and cyclic alkanes, aromatics, and a blend of pure hydrocarbon fuels were tested. Results showed that fuel type affects lean blowout limits, combustion efficiency, and pollutant emissions. These observations have important practical implications to the design of gas-turbine combustors.