Numerical study of the premixed ammonia-hydrogen combustion under engine-relevant conditions

Recently, ammonia is considered to be an energy medium for hydrogen or energy storage and ammonia/hydrogen can be a potential fuel blend for the spark-ignition engine. Nevertheless, the combustion properties of ammonia/hydrogen mixtures could be distinctive under different initial conditions. In this study, several essential combustion properties, including laminar burning velocity, minimum ignition energy, NOx and ammonia emissions, combustion efficiency, and mixture heating values of ammonia/hydrogen/air premixed combustion were extensively studied under a wide range of equivalence ratios (phi), hydrogen fractions (alpha) and different compression ratio using one-dimensional laminar planar flame and compared with stoichiometric methane, methanol, and ethanol combustion. The behavior of NOx generation changing with phi and alpha was analyzed in detail. Results showed that most properties of ammonia/hydrogen combustion could be comparable to that of hydrocarbon fuels under engine-relevant conditions, except for the mixture heating value is slightly lower in all conditions. Besides, the NO mole fraction non-monotonically changes with phi and alpha due to the competition between the effects caused by the reduction of nitrogen-atom species and the enrichment of H/O radicals. The NO mole fraction of stoichiometric ammonia/hydrogen could be even lower than that of hydrocarbons. Considering the properties of hydrocarbon fuels as a reference, promising working conditions for ammonia/hydrogen mixtures are phi from 1.0 to 1.05 and alpha from 40% to 60%. Besides, a high compression ratio is more suitable for ammonia/hydrogen mixtures due to the excellent knock resistance ability of NH3/H-2 and better improvement than hydrocarbon fuels under high compression ratio. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study extensively investigated the combustion properties of ammonia/hydrogen/air premixed combustion and found that most properties of ammonia/hydrogen combustion could be comparable to that of hydrocarbon fuels, except for a slightly lower mixture heating value. The NO mole fraction of stoichiometric ammonia/hydrogen could be even lower than that of hydrocarbons. Promising working conditions for ammonia/hydrogen mixtures are phi from 1.0 to 1.05 and alpha from 40% to 60%.