Premixed ammonia/hydrogen swirl combustion under rich fuel conditions for gas turbines operation

Energy storage is one of the highest priority challenges in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Fluctuating, intermittent primary renewable sources such as wind and solar require low-carbon storage options to enable effective load matching, ensuring security of supply. Chemical storage is one such option, with low or zero carbon fuels such as hydrogen, alcohols and ammonia having been proposed. Ammonia provides zero-carbon hydrogen storage whilst offering liquefaction at relatively low pressures and atmospheric temperatures, enabling ease of transportation in a pre-existing infrastructure. Ammonia can also be used directly as a fuel in power plants such as gas turbines to avoid complete conversion back to hydrogen. It is a relatively unreactive fuel, and so it is of interest to explore the potential utilisation of ammonia/hydrogen mixtures. Hence, the goal of this paper is to provide a first assessment of the suitability of a chosen 70%NH330%H2 (%vol) blend for utilisation within a gas turbine environment, based on primary combustion diagnostics including combustion stability – via OH chemiluminescence - and emissions (NOx and NH3). An established optical generic swirl-burner enabled studies of the influence of equivalence ratio (φ > 1), ambient temperature (