PREDICTIONS OF NOX IN A LABORATORY PULVERIZED COAL COMBUSTOR OPERATING UNDER AIR AND OXY-FUEL CONDITIONS

A new approach to modeling NOX under oxy-fuel combustion conditions in a simple staged-oxidizer flow field is presented. The approach is centered on the combination of devolatilization and char oxidation models with a detailed kinetic mechanism for light hydrocarbon combustion. NOX chemistry is included by the user's selection of the detailed mechanism, while the devolatilization model consists of the chemical percolation devolatilization (CPD) model modified to be independent of oxidizer composition. Literature-based correlations provide elemental composition of the volatiles. Model predictions were compared to experimental measurements with good agreement in several respects. The model provides insights for the interpretation of experimental oxy-fuel combustion NOX results, and recommendations are given for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of NOX in oxy-fuel combustion.