Recent advances in low-gradient combustion modelling of hydrogen fuel blends

Abstract

Low-gradient combustion (LGC) proved to be an effective alternative technology to reduce pollutant emissions and carbon footprint, specifically when combined with hydrogen as a fuel or blend component. This novel technology offers several advantages over conventional combustion regimes, including a more effective control of emissions and providing greater flexibility in fuel application. The impact of hydrogen on this regime is still not well-known, especially when it comes to the combustion of pure hydrogen and fuels with a high hydrogen content. In the last two decades, numerical simulations have become a powerful tool that facilitates the research and design of LGC, particularly in terms of stability of the process and the emission of pollutants. This article provides an up-to-date review of recent trends and theoretical knowledge in low-gradient combustion. This includes the guidelines and recommendations applied to LGC modelling. Comparisons have been made between the recently published modelling approaches presented by the authors, including a detailed assessment of the discrepancies in the temperature predictions. The challenges and limitations associated with the LGC combustion modelling of conventional fuels (i.e., natural gas, methane, syngas) blended with hydrogen are also discussed. The review demonstrated that the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) is the most common turbulent chemical interaction model employed in LGC combustion simulations. The performance of the EDC can be significantly improved by variable constants $C_{𝛾}$ and $C_{𝜏}$ based on local turbulent Reynolds and Damköhler numbers. However, the most recent publications indicate that the flamelet-based approach can be considered as a promising (and more cost-effective) alternative to the EDC. Furthermore, the chemical kinetic studies considered in this review confirm that there is no detailed reaction mechanism capable of accurately predicting the temperature profile along with the emissions of the main species of interest, i.e., NOx, CO, CO2, and OH. Although GRI-Mech 2.11 is the most widely used mechanism in LGC simulations, providing satisfactory overall accuracy.