Hydrogen/oxygen addition on premixed methane/air flames

The CHEMKIN kinetic simulation package is used to simulate the effects of the addition of small amounts of water electrolysis products on premixed, laminar, planar methane/air flames. A zero dimensional model along with detailed GRI methane kinetic mechanism are utilized to calculate the flame properties of various methane/hydrogen/oxygen/air mixtures. Pollutant concentrations, burning velocities, adiabatic flame temperatures and temperature profiles of these mixtures over a range of initial pressures (P 0 = 1, 3, 7 atm) and initial temperatures (T0 = 298 K and 600 K) are deduced for different addition percentages and different equivalence ratios. The hydrogen/oxygen additives are found to be effective on burning velocity enhancement, mostly by increasing the diffusion of active radicals such as OH and H. The addition of 10% pure hydrogen in the fuel is found to have a smaller effect in augmenting burning velocity, compared to adding the same amount of electrolysis product (hydrogen/oxygen in the same ratio as is found in water). While CO emissions are reduced when hydrogen is used to displace some of the carbon-containing fuels, the addition of oxygen increases the NOx concentrations somewhat