Study on the combustion characteristics of a premixed combustion system with exhaust gas recirculation

The boiler of a premixed combustion system with EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) is investigated to explore the potential for increasing thermal efficiency and lowering pollutant emissions. To achieve this purpose, a thermodynamic analysis is performed to predict the effect of EGR on the thermodynamic efficiency for various equivalence ratios. Experiments of a preheated air condensing boiler with EGR were conducted to measure the changes in the thermal efficiency and the characteristics of the pollutant emission. Finally, a 1-D premixed code was calculated to understand the effect of the EGR method on the NO reduction mechanism. The results of the thermodynamic analysis show that the thermodynamic efficiency is not changed because the temperature and the amount of the exhaust gas are unchanged, even though the EGR method is implemented in the system. However, when the EGR method is used with an equivalence ratio near 1.00, it is experimentally verified that the thermal efficiency increases and the NOx concentration decreases. Based on the results from numerical calculations, it is shown that the NO production rates of N + O2 ↔ NO + O and N + OH ↔ NO + H are remarkably changed due to the decrease in the flame temperature and the NO mole fraction is decreased.