DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEORY OF GAS FUEL COMBUSTION TAKING INTO ACCOUNT MODERN KINETIC MECHANISMS OF COMBUSTION
Authors: Soroka B.S. , Zgurskyi V.O. 
Published: October 2024

An actuality of modernizing advancement the modern adopted combustion theory is due to a significant change in the composition of fuels at the market of developed countries by rejection of basic mineral (organic) fuels (fossil fuels), which have been used in the world for 250 years. The transformation of traditional fuels’ orientation towards an application of carbon-free fuels, primarily to hydrogen and its mixtures with natural gas. Each way of mentioned activity is connected with to ensure an environmental decarbonisation. Criteria for evaluating the CO2 emissions by fuels’ choice and selection have been proposed while numerical calculations of the specific CO2 content in the combustion products of the hydrocarbon-hydrogen mixture jʹ and j have been evaluated. It is possible to reduce these values when adding the shared H2 in the fuels (m3 CO2/ MJ; kg CO2/ MJ). Considering the combustion process in combustion systems (combustion chambers, boilers, furnaces) at constant pressure (p =const, dp =0 — isobaric process), the enthalpy of the reactants’ flow of the mixture (total (chemical) enthalpy I) can serve as a measure of the specific energy of the reacting mixture. An approach is proposed, according to which the main equations of heat and mass transfer in the torch (premixed flame) are composed basing upon the principle of conservation the total (chemical) enthalpy representing energy as basic function. The basic approach to the development of a modern combustion theory is focused on the concept of T. von Karman, according to which the combustion process is considered as “aerothermochemistry”, i.e. the description of physical and chemical processes is based on the combination of heat and mass transfer equations with chemical kinetics’ equations. At the current period, the problem of chemical kinetics (burning process) is considered through the combustion mechanisms of basic fuels, which consist of a large number of equations for molecules and particles involved in process at various stages of the combustion — from the preheating of the reaction mixture and through the stage of ignition (or self-ignition) — to the final temperature of flue gases. The laminar combustion velocity SL is a determinative characteristic of the combustible properties of gas fuels and, accordingly, of the safety restrictions by the fuel choice. Quantitative values of SL for the separate basic fuels, including the hydrogen, both the organic (fossil fuels) and alternative ones could be differed by an order of magnitude and more. The problem of estimable forecasting the SL value provides an option of the composition of the fuel-oxidant mixture in the industry, power and municipal energetics. The SL value’s prediction makes an especially important action at the current stage of modelling completion with an account of the global warming and by preventing an excess of CO2 emissions, including involvement of hydrogen-containing gases by substitution the carbon-friendly fuels, firstly the fossil fuels. The contemporary theory of combustion has been developed by extensive use the adequate kinetic mechanism GRI-Mech 3.0, the universality of which has been confirmed by our calculations of SL values for a wide range of the gas fuels — from methane CH4 to hydrogen H2 and their mixtures. An advanced modern theory of combustion using the adequate and approved GRI-Mech 3.0 combustion kinetic mechanism has been developed. The universality of this mechanism is confirmed by our calculations of SL values for a wide range of gaseous fuels — from methane CH4 to hydrogen H2 and their mixtures (mixed gases MG). For further analysis and development, the model of combustion in the reacting flow by Y.B. Zeldovich and D.A. Frank-Kamenetsky was used, considering the transfer processes of total enthalpy I as the energy characteristic of the combustible mixture. The kinetic component (on the example of natural gas) is taken into account using the combustion mechanism for GRI-Mech 3.0. The latter summarizes the combustion process of through 325 constituent reactions for 53 components. The adequacy of the combustion model proposed in the paper is confirmed by numerical examples of the coincidence of numerical SL values: ours — calculated; literary — experimental. The validity of experimental values of SL is provided by the use of different methods of measuring the SL. Calculations of the specific total enthalpy I of the reacting mixture along the length x º l (thickness of the front for a homogeneous flame in a one-dimensional formulation) have been performed as a result of researches confirmed the initial position: I(x) = const with deviations for CH4 +7 % / –2 %; for H2 +9,2 % / –2,8 % in relation to the heat of combustion. Bibl. 52, Fig. 9, Tab. 3.