Multi-Fuel Burner Micro-Premix Chamber for Flashback Prevention
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gas turbine combustion systems fail to operate in a fuel-lean fully-premixed mode at high pressures without flashback, thermal meltdown, and high pressure losses, leading to increased NOX emissions and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A low-emissions high-pressure multi-fuel burner design featuring an injector plate with staggered nozzles for impingement-enhanced mixing of fuel and oxidizer gases, which creates a micro-premix chamber for rapid and uniform mixing, preventing flashback and thermal issues while maintaining low pressure drops.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If water-cooled sintered metal disk burner is used to prevent flashback, then flashback is prevented, but flame temperature is reduced and pressure losses increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a porous burner face with controlled pore sizes (0.5-5 mm) that allows fuel-air mixture to pass through while preventing flashback. The porous structure provides mechanical flow control without requiring water cooling, thereby maintaining flame temperature and reducing pressure losses compared to water-cooled sintered metal disks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the water cooling system from the burner design, eliminating the need for external water supply and cooling mechanisms. The burner face is designed to be self-cooling through its porous structure and thermal management, removing the harmful effect of water cooling on flame temperature and pressure losses.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cross-flow hydrogen jets are used for mixing, then fuel-lean fully-premixed mode is achieved, but mixing is incomplete and NOX emissions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the burner face into multiple independent nozzle openings (0.5-5 mm pores) distributed across the surface. Each nozzle acts as an independent mixing element that creates localized turbulent flow and complete mixing of fuel and air, ensuring uniform stoichiometric mixture throughout the combustion zone and preventing stoichiometric contours that cause NOX emissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from planar mixing (cross-flow arrangement) to three-dimensional mixing by injecting fuel and air at angled orientations relative to each other. The nozzles are arranged with fuel jets at approximately 45 degrees to the burner face and air jets perpendicular, creating volumetric mixing that ensures complete mixing before combustion, thereby reducing NOX emissions.
3Power
If high pressure operation is implemented, then power output increases, but thermal meltdown and flashback problems occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the burner face by using porous material with specific pore size distributions (0.5-5 mm) and controlled porosity (30-70%). This modifies the flow characteristics and heat transfer properties, allowing high-pressure operation while preventing thermal meltdown through enhanced cooling and controlled combustion progression.
Solution Approach 2:
The porous burner face acts as an intermediary element between the high-pressure fuel supply and the combustion zone. It mediates the flow by creating controlled permeation through the porous structure, preventing direct high-velocity flame contact with the burner face and thereby preventing thermal meltdown while maintaining high-pressure operation capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The burner achieves complete and rapid mixing over a short distance, operates stably at high pressures, and produces ultra-low NOX emissions, with a scalable and robust design suitable for industrial gas turbines, avoiding flashback and thermal meltdown.
Implementation Method 1
The fuel gas and the oxidizer gas are mixed in the micro-premix chamber through impingement-enhanced mixing of flows of the fuel gas and the oxidizer gas
Implementation Method 2
an impingement-cooled face, parallel to the premix face of the injector plate and forming a micro-premix chamber between the impingement-cooled face and the in injector face
Data Source
AI summary
A low-emissions high-pressure multi-fuel burner includes a fuel inlet, for receiving a fuel, an oxidizer inlet, for receiving an oxidizer gas, an injector plate, having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned with premix face of the injector plate, the plurality of nozzles in communication with the fuel and oxidizer inlets and each nozzle providing flow for one of the fuel and the oxidizer gas and an impingement-cooled face, parallel to the premix face of the injector plate and forming a micro-premix chamber between the impingement-cooled face and the in injector face. The fuel and the oxidizer gas are mixed in the micro-premix chamber through impingement-enhanced mixing of flows of the fuel and the oxidizer gas. The burner can be used for low-emissions fuel-lean fully-premixed, or fuel-rich fully-premixed hydrogen-air combustion, or for combustion with other gases such as methane or other hydrocarbons, or even liquid fuels.