Influence of steam dilution on the ignition of hydrogen, syngas and natural gas blends at elevated pressures

This paper presents the influence of steam dilution on the autoignition behaviour of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, syngas, methane, and natural gas mixtures under gas turbine-relevant conditions. Rapid compression machine experiments were performed for fuel/air mixtures at equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, in the temperature range 895–1140 K for the H2 and CO mixtures and 730–1060 K for the natural gas mixtures and at pressures of 10 and 30 bar. Shock-tube experiments were performed for CH4–O2–Argon mixtures with and without H2O addition, highly diluted in argon (98% by vol.). The parameters were varied using an L9 Taguchi matrix for equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0; pressures of 1.6, 11, and 30 atm; and water contents of 0%, 10%, and 30% of the fuel by volume. It was found that significant changes in the thermal properties of the mixtures affect the reactivity, whereas no chemical effect of the steam addition was observed for the majority of the mixtures investigated. Only mixtures of pure carbon monoxide were strongly influenced by water addition. In this case, the presence of water in the mixture allows the formation of relatively reactive ȮH radicals which enhances the possible oxidation chemistry of carbon monoxide leading to a greater observed reactivity of CO in the presence of water.