Ignition of syngas/air and hydrogen/air mixtures at low temperatures and high pressures : Experimental data interpretation and kinetic modeling implications

An important aspect of minimizing pollutant emissions from industrial gas turbines operating on natural gas has been the implementation of lean, premixed combustion. A similar approach in terms of designing turbines for operating on syngas and pure hydrogen has led to a renewed interest in their combustion dynamics, and experiments have recently been reported from a variety of venues [1–10] under conditions relevant to industrial turbine mixing systems (i.e., lower temperatures and higher pressures: T < 1000 K, 10 < P < 30 atm). In a recent brief communication in this journal [1], Petersen et al. reported new data on ignition delay for syngas–air mixtures in a high-pressure shock tube and a flow reactor. Experiments were performed under lean conditions (φ ∼ 0.5) and for pressure/temperature ranges of 16–29 atm/940–1150 K (shock tube) and 5 atm/760–785 K (flow reactor). These new data were summarized in an Arrheniustype plot (Fig. 1) along with other recently published data from the rapid compression studies of Walton et al. [6] and from an earlier high-pressure flow reactor study described in an Electric Power Research Institute report [8]. For comparison purposes, all of the ignition delay data were normalized to conditions of 20 atm pressure [1]. At temperatures lower than about 1050 K, experimental observations of syngas