Burner Development – Hydrogen Blending

California:
Hydrogen Blending Research @ University California Irvine:
Dr. Vince McDonell, Director, Combustion Laboratory, University California Irvine, California, USA
The race is on to decarbonize our society. While 80% or more of our energy continues to comes from combustion of fossil fuels, this is starting to shift in a meaningful way. The concept of electrification, while widely supported, marks a seemingly impossible transition, certainly in the near term. And for many applications, this may not be technically or economically feasible. As a result, a strong role for use of low carbon or carbon free fuels has major appeal in the near term. Hydrogen is a leading candidate to help decarbonize the current fuel streams. Yet hydrogen is wildly different in behavior compared to natural gas which is ubiquitous in our society today. In this overview, a summary of work being carried out at UC Irvine on the use of these fuels in residential and commercial appliances is provided. In most cases, upper limits are being identified and strategies for shifting to 100% hydrogen are discussed. Opportunities regarding consideration of the UCI Campus as a blending demonstration site are also discussed.

British Columbia:
Hydrogen Combustion Research Lab – special burners under development @ University of British Columbia:
Dr. Sina Kheirkhah, Assistant Professor School of Engineering Combustion for Propulsion and Power Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Canada
Turbulent premixed combustion is the modus operandi in several large-scale power generation equipment, furnaces, and home appliances. These equipment operate with natural gas or a blend of hydrogen and natural gas. Although numerous investigations have been performed over the past decades to quantify how fast turbulent premixed flames burn, our understanding related to their burn rate is limited. Additionally, auxiliary equipment that allows for controlling the flame speed needs to be developed. In this talk, first, we will focus on how laser-based and optical diagnostics can be used for understanding the speed of flame propagation. Then, a new device that allows for controlling the speed of turbulent premixed flames is introduced and characterized.