Ignition delay time and laminar flame speed measurements of ammonia blended with dimethyl ether: A promising low carbon fuel blend

Gani Issayev, Binod Raj Giri, Ayman M. Elbaz, Krishna P. Shrestha, Fabian Mauss, William L. Roberts and Aamir Farooq

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 181, issue C, 1353-1370

Abstract: Ammonia (NH3) has recently received much attention as a promising future fuel for mobility and power generation. The use of ammonia as a fueling vector can help curb global warming by cutting CO2 emissions because it is a carbon-free fuel and a hydrogen carrier with a high percentage of hydrogen atoms per unit volume. Liquid ammonia contains a higher volumetric density of hydrogen than liquid hydrogen. The low reactivity of ammonia, however, hinders its direct usage as a combustible fuel. One feasible way to boost the reactivity of ammonia is to target a dual-fuel system comprising of ammonia and a suitable combustion promoter. In this work, combustion properties of ammonia were investigated by blending it with various proportions of dimethyl ether (DME) using a rapid compression machine (RCM) and a constant volume spherical reactor (CVSR) over a wide range of experimental conditions. DME is a highly reactive fuel that may be produced in a sustainable carbon cycle with a net zero-carbon emission. Ignition delay times (IDTs) of NH3/DME blends were measured over a temperature (T) range of 649–950 K, pressures (P) of 20 and 40 bar, equivalence ratios (Φ) of 0.5 and 1 for a range of DME mole fractions (χDME) of 0.05–0.5 in the blends. In addition, the laminar burning velocities of NH3/DME blends were measured at P = 1, 3 and 5 bar, Φ = 0.8–1.3 and T = 300 K for χDME ranging from 0.18 to 0.47. Our results suggest that DME is a good ignition promoter, resulting in a significant shortening of IDTs and an increase of flame speeds of NH3. A detailed chemical model has been developed and validated against the experimental data. Overall, our kinetic model offered reasonable predictive capabilities capturing the experimental trends over a wide range of conditions. In the worst-case scenario, our model underpredicted IDTs by a factor of ∼2.5 while overpredicting laminar flame speed by ∼20%.

Keywords: Ammonia; Dimethyl ether; Chemical kinetic model; Ignition delay time; Laminar flame speed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:181:y:2022:i:c:p:1353-1370

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.09.117

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