Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Effect of carbon dioxide content in biogas on turbulent combustion in

the combustor of micro gas turbine
Hongzhao Liu a, Yuzhang Wang a, b, *, Tao Yu a, Hecong Liu a, Weiwei Cai a, Shilie Weng a, b
a
Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ, 800 Dong
Chuan Rd, Shanghai, 200240, PR China
b
Gas Turbine Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ, 800 Dong Chuan Rd, Shanghai, 200240, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: China has huge potential on biogas resources and the distributed energy system (DES) based on micro
Received 7 December 2018 gas turbine provides an effective way for biogas utilization. In this work, turbulent combustion char-
Received in revised form acteristics in the combustor of micro gas turbine for DES were numerically and experimentally studied,
27 July 2019
and the effect of carbon dioxide content in biogas on the turbulent flame was mainly analyzed. Turbulent
Accepted 6 September 2019
Available online 9 September 2019
flames structures of natural gas and three kinds of biogas under various equivalence ratios were
measured by three-dimensional (3D) combustion diagnostic technique based on computed tomography
of chemiluminescence (CTC). The results show that the carbon dioxide content in the fuel has a great
Keywords:
Distributed energy system
influence on flame structure of turbulent combustion. The increase of carbon dioxide content in the fuel
Micro gas turbine not only reduces turbulent combustion rate, but also makes the combustion stability worse. With the
Biogas decrease of equivalence ratio, the effect becomes greater. With the increase of carbon dioxide volume
Turbulent combustion fraction, combustion flame is gradually away from the outlet of the nozzle. When volume fraction of
Low swirl premixed nozzle carbon dioxide is 50%, the distance between the combustion flame and the nozzle outlet increases the
100 mm. Furthermore, carbon dioxide weakens the effect of excess air on the CH* distribution and
turbulent flame.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction fermentation, 4.23
1011 m3 biogas could be produced [5]. There-

Due to the continuous growth of energy demands and limits of
fossil resources, biogas, as a renewable energy, is considered as one
of the alternatives to meet energy demands [1,2]. In Europe, the
European Commission proposed an integrated Energy and Climate
Change package including a mandatory target of 20% renewable
energy in 2020, and the European Union has adopted a 2030
Framework for climate and energy which has set a 27% share of
renewable energy consumption [3]. China, as a large traditional
agricultural country, has abundant biogas resources generated from
agriculture and its related production activities. In 2010, the annual
biogas output of China has risen to 248 billion m3 [4]. In 2012, 846
million tons crops residues and 3.21 billion tons livestock manure
were produced in China. If these wastes are utilized for anaerobic
* Corresponding author. Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of
Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ,
800 Dong Chuan Rd, Shanghai, 200240, PR China.
E-mail address: yuzhangwang@sjtu.edu.cn (Y. Wang).
fore, with more than 1.2
106 km2 of arable land and 3.9
106 km2
of grassland, biogas has huge potential on realizing the socio-
economic development and environmental improvement in
China [6,7].
The distributed energy system (DES) based on micro gas turbine
is an effective way for biogas utilization [8,9]. Because of the
promising benefits in energy and environment, DES has increas-
ingly attracted extensive attention worldwide. In recent years, with
the supportive government policies and financial incentives, the
application of DES has been developed rapidly [10e13]. Meanwhile,
the relative content of CH4 and CO2 in biogas is mainly dependent
on the substrate and pH of the reactor. The higher the CO2 content,
the lower the lower heating value (LHV) in biogas [14]. Therefore, it
is necessary to study the flow and combustion characteristics of
micro gas turbine when biogas is used as fuel.
Turbulent combustion is of great importance as it is often used
in the operation of many systems such as industrial or domestic
heating devices. Thus, the combustion in the combustor of micro
gas turbine always involves turbulent flames [15e18]. The com-
bustion radicals (e.g., CH*, OH*, CO2*, and C2*) of the turbulent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.09.014
0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1300 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
flame in the combustor naturally emits chemiluminescence in the
combustion processes, which makes the optical diagnostics
possible [19,20]. The non-intrusive optical techniques are typically
based on three categories. The first category relies on laser induced
fluorescence (LIF) to track a fuel maker, the second category is
Raman scattering to measure fuel concentration, and the third one
relies on chemiluminescence from combustion radicals. Compared
to LIF or Raman based techniques, the experiment for chem-
iluminescence trapping is cost-effective and easy to implement and
the interpretation of signal is relatively straightforward. All of these
significantly simplify the alignment and implementation for
application in practical systems [19,21,22].
In the study of biogas-fueled micro gas turbine, most of the
researchers focus on the effect of biogas utilization on the perfor-
mance of DES, such as electrical efficiency, fuel flexibility, and
economic performance [23e26]. Few studies pay attention to the
actual flame of biogas combustion in the combustor of micro gas
turbine. However, the three-dimensional (3D) combustion diag-
nostic based on computed tomography of chemiluminescence
(CTC) provides an effective way to visually analyze the turbulent
flame of biogas.
In this work, the turbulent combustion characteristics in the
combustor of micro gas turbine for DES was studied by both
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculation and experiment.
Numerical calculation was carried out to study the flow
morphology and air distribution for further analysis of the experi-
ment results. In the experiment, the combustion process of natural
gas and three kinds of biogas was studied under various equiva-
lence ratios. The turbulent flame was measured by 3D combustion
diagnostic based on CTC. Based on the images captured by cameras,
the dynamic process of turbulent flame was deeply analyzed, and
the three-dimensional structure of combustion flame was recon-
structed. The effect of carbon dioxide content in biogas on com-
bustion flame was further studied.
2. Experimental system
2.1. Test unit
Based on the annular combustor of 60 kW micro gas turbine, the
experimental system for optical measurement [27] was built to
measure the flow pattern structure by PIV. In order to adapt to the
optical measurement of combustion flame in high temperature
environment, the experimental system was modified by using high
temperature resistant components. The nozzle test section is
comprised of air channel, low swirl premixed nozzle (LSPN) and
optical glass cover, as shown in Fig. 1. In the real annular combustor
of 60 kW micro gas turbine, four nozzles are uniformly arranged
along the circumference. Therefore, the design of air channel is 1/4
of the circumference of the annular combustor. In order to facilitate
optical measurement and control of uniform distribution of air
flow, the actual sector air channel is changed into square channel
with equal height and equal area.
In the actual combustor, the air in the air channel is first passed
through the air hole of the nozzle into the nozzle and mixed with
the gas, and the remaining air will surround the combustor and
enter the combustor through the dilution air flow hole. Therefore,
the air flow rate entering the nozzle is determined by the internal
resistance of the nozzle and the resistance through the dilution air
hole. In order to simulate the resistance of the dilution air hole side,
a valve with adjustable flow rate is installed at the exit of the air
channel in order to realize the distribution of air flow in the nozzle
and the dilution air flow hole under the same condition.
There is a 29.1 mm hole on the wall of air channel for assembling
the nozzle. The external diameter of the nozzle is 25.4 mm, and the
eccentricity of the center line of the nozzle and the center line of
the hole is about 0.5 mm in reference to the actual condition, as
shown in Fig. 1(a). Because of the diameter difference between
nozzle and assembly hole, airflow can enter the combustion region
through the gap around the nozzle and act as secondary air. Under
the influence of eccentricity, there are narrow side and wide side in
the gap. This difference will affect the characteristics of flow and
combustion in the combustor.
The low swirl premixed nozzle was designed and optimized by
our team, and the flow characteristics and mixing performance of
the nozzle were studied in detail in the previous work [27e29]. The
results show that the nozzle has good mixing performance of air
and gas. The specific structure of the nozzle is given in Fig. 1(b).
Twelve fuel holes are evenly distributed along circumference. Eight
air holes are arranged in the wall of nozzle as two rows and the
directions are tangential for generating low swirl flow. The swirl
number of this nozzle is less than 0.25. The cavity between the air
hole and the outlet in the nozzle is the mixing section of fuel and air
to improve the mixing performance of the nozzle. The quartz glass
cover is placed on the air channel and surrounds the entire com-
bustion region. It has good transparency and high temperature
resistance for combustion measurement. The inner diameter of
cover is 95.5 mm, and the length was designed long enough to
isolate the combustor from the effect of outside air.
2.2. Experimental setup
The schematic diagram of experimental setup is illustrated in
Fig. 2. The experiment was carried out at atmospheric pressure. Air
is pressurized by centrifugal compressor and air flow is adjusted by
frequency conversion controller. The excess air behind the nozzle is
connected to the stainless-steel pipe with diameter 50 mm. At the
end of the pipe, a valve is mounted as an auxiliary control of the
airflow. The total pressure probe and static tube are installed in the
pipeline for measuring the volume flow rate of air. The value of
pressure is measured by the micromanometer with a measuring
accuracy of ±3 Pa. Accordingly, the equivalence ratio (4) in com-
bustion region can be calculated by:
4cm qmf
4¼
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  (1)
pd2 2ra DpU  2ra DpD
where, qmf is the mass flow of combustible part in the fuel and cm is
the mass flow rate of air to fuel combustible part in complete
combustion. In this work, qmf represents mass flow of CH4 and
cm ¼ 17.167. d and ra are the diameter of air pipe and density of air
respectively. DpU and DpD separately represent the differences
between total pressure and static pressure in the pipes upstream
and downstream the air channel.
In this experiment, four kinds of fuels were used and the pa-
rameters are shown in Table 1. The biogas of different components
is premixed by the gas company and stored in high pressure cyl-
inders. The pressure of the fuel in the experiment is controlled by a
two-stage decompression valve. The amount of fuel to be burned is
controlled by a mass flow meter that can set the flow value. All of
the air to be burned is supplied by the air channel. The combustion
flame can be directly observed and measured through the glass
cover. Finally, the exhaust gas is discharged to atmosphere through
the enclosed flue.
2.3. Imaging system
Fig. 3 shows the imaging system used in the experiment. The
projections of target flame from various view angles are captured
 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311 1301

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of test unit for the experiment.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of experimental setup.

Table 1 by Fiber-based endoscopes (FBEs). Each FBE has four inputs and one
Parameters of fuel. output. All the inputs are on the same plane and the distances to
Component Density (kg/m3) Flow rate (SLPM) target flame are maintained in the range of 1.58e1.65 m. Four in-
Natural gas 100% CH4 0.715 15
puts measure four projections from four directions and converge
Biogas 1 75% CH4, 25% CO2 1.027 20 into one output. In this way all four projections can be captured by
Biogas 2 60% CH4, 40% CO2 1.215 25 one camera. Two FBE bundles and two cameras were used and
Biogas 3 50% CH4, 50% CO2 1.340 30 eight directions were measured in this work. The cameras were
1302 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 3. Photograph of imaging system.
operated at a frame rate of 10 Hz and an exposure time of 11 s with
a pixel resolution of 1024
1024.
The chemiluminescence is naturally emitted from the combus-
tion zone [19], and the projections reflect the flame structure of
combustor. A measurement is shown in Fig. 4 to illustrate the
process. The height of observation region was chosen according to
the actual condition of annular combustor in micro gas turbine. The
high chemiluminescence emission regions reflect the inner flame
where the CH* concentration is the highest [20]. The turbulent
combustion flame cannot be observed as a single and continuous
flame front because of the velocity and combustion fluctuation. The
combustion process performs in a certain area. According to the
eight projections, 3D reconstruction of the target flame can be
obtained [30].
3. 3D combustion diagnostic based on CTC
The illustration for mathematical formulation of tomographic
chemiluminescence problem is shown in Fig. 5. The target 3D dis-
tribution of the chemiluminescence emission (CH* concentration in
this work) to be measured is denoted as Fðx; y; zÞ and discretized
into voxels in a Cartesian coordinate system. The origin of the co-
ordinate system is set at the center of the nozzle outlet. The posi-
tions of voxels are specified by r (distance), q (azimuth angle), f
(inclination angle). The two-dimensional (2D) images of F are
recorded on charge coupled device (CCD) cameras by imaging
system and formed on the CCD array. The 2D image on the CCD
array is the projection of F and can be denoted as Pðr; q; fÞ which is
given by:
XXX
Pðr; q; fÞ ¼ Fðxi ; yi ; zi ÞDPSFðxi ; yi ; zi ; r; q; fÞ (2)
ix iy iz
where ix , iy , iz represent the voxel centered at ðxi ; yi ; zi Þ and PSF is
the point spread function defined as the projection formed by a
point-source located at ðxi ; yi ; zi Þ with unity intensity. Physically,
Equation (1) states that the projection is a weighted summation of
the PSF across all voxels, and the weights are the value of the sought
distribution. The PSF only depends on the imaging system rather
than the specific physical processes involved. Finally, the 3D TC
problem can be formulated as: given a set of projections (Ps)
measured at various distances and orientations, find Fðx; y; zÞ
[19,20].
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Fow morphology in the combustor
In order to clearly understand the flow morphology in the
combustor, the flow in the combustor for the experiment was
studied by using the numerical analysis method. Fig. 6 shows the
streamlines in the vertical cross-sections along the axis of
combustor. In the XZ section, the streamlines are approximately
symmetrical. The flow jetting from the nozzle and gap whirls the
rest air and generate vortexes in the near-wall region on both sides
of nozzle. In the YZ section, under the influence of eccentricity, the
streamlines turn asymmetric. The difference of size between nar-
row side and wide side of nozzle makes the entrance airflow un-
even. Although the velocity of airflow on the narrow side is the
highest, the flow rate is less than the wide side because of the low
flow passage area. The larger flow rate on the wide side blows away
the near-wall vortex, while the high velocity of airflow on the
narrow side make the vortex much closer to the main flow.
The gap around the nozzle in the annual combustor can be used
for air distribution and nozzle cooling. According to the analysis
above, the structure of gap has a great influence on the flow
morphology in the combustor. Thus, it is necessary to investigate
the effect of carbon dioxide in fuel on the flow rate passing through
the gap, especially when the equivalence ratio changes. Fig. 7
shows the mass flow of air separately through the nozzle and gap
under various equivalence ratios. The settings of fuel refer to
Table 1. Both the mass flow values of nozzle and gap increase with
the decrease of equivalence ratio. While the volume fraction of
carbon dioxide rises from 0% to 25%, the air allocation of nozzle and
gap changes less. After that, the mass flow of air through the nozzle
increases and the amplitude is less than 10% when carbon dioxide
H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311 1303

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of measurement.

Fig. 5. Illustration of mathematical formulation.

1304 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 6. Streamlines in the vertical cross-sections.
Fig. 7. Air allocations of nozzle and gap with various equivalence ratios.
reaches 50%. It can be seen that the effect of carbon dioxide on air
allocation is small.
4.2. Experiment
The main difference between biogas and natural gas is the high
content of carbon dioxide in biogas. In this work, the combustion
characteristics of three kinds of biogas and natural gas have been
studied. The effect of carbon dioxide content on flame structure was
studied. The components and parameters of fuels are shown in
Table 1.
4.2.1. Effect of carbon dioxide addition
According to structure characteristics of micro gas turbine, the
turbulent combustion flame in combustor presents special features.
Fig. 8 shows the transient projections of chemiluminescence from
the front view in 0.5s. By adjusting the frequency controller of
centrifugal fan and auxiliary valve, the equivalence ratio was
maintained about 1.0. To every kind of fuel, the captured images
reflect the instantaneous flame front of turbulent flame. In turbu-
lent flame, the instantaneous flame front is highly convoluted with
large folds and changes rapidly [31]. Therefore, the flames in Fig. 8
show obvious fluctuation. Besides, the flame extends to the wide
side of gap around the nozzle under the influence of uneven
entrance airflow.
To laminar flame, a large number of tests show the addition of
inert substances lowers the burning velocity and shrinks the
flammable limits. As well, the turbulent flame is also affected by the
addition of inert substances. By comparing the four groups of
flames in Fig. 8, the effect of carbon dioxide can be well illustrated.
To natural gas, the combustion reaction begins as soon as the re-
actants discharge from the nozzle, and the high chem-
iluminescence emission area is close to the outlet of nozzle. With
the addition of carbon dioxide, the flame is blown away from the
nozzle outlet. According to the data in Table 1, when the equiva-
lence ratio is close to 1.0, the fuel-air mixture flow rates of biogas 1,
2 and 3 respectively increase 3.16%, 6.33% and 9.50% comparing
with the natural gas. The flow velocity does not increase much, but
the structure and position of flame have large changes. It means
that the turbulent burning velocity becomes much less under the
influence of carbon dioxide in the fuel.
Based on eight simultaneous projections, 3D reconstruction of
the flame can be performed and better illustrates the turbulent
combustion. To take a holistic approach to analyze the flame, the
time average signals were used in 3D reconstruction. Fig. 9 shows
the 3D reconstruction of time average flames and cross-sectional
views along the axis of combustor with the equivalence ratio
close to 1.0. Because of the uneven entrance airflow from the gap
around the nozzle, the flame is not completely axially symmetric.
Almost the entire flame of natural gas combustion can be observed
in the measurement area. Unlike the continuous flame front of
laminar flame [20], the turbulent flame is formed by a large number
of reaction areas located around the axis of combustor. The highest
CH* concentration area surrounds the flame core where the
chemiluminescence emission has not begun. While the volume
fraction of carbon dioxide in the fuel increases from 0% to 25%, the
flame core is gradually away from the nozzle outlet. 50 mm. When
the volume fraction of carbon dioxide is 25%, the flame core is
50 mm from the nozzle outlet. When the volume fraction of carbon
dioxide continues to increase, the combustion reaction area be-
comes more dispersed. When the volume ratio of carbon dioxide is
50%, the combustion flame almost leaves the measured area.
The flame structure of LSPN in the combustor of micro gas tur-
bine shows a spindle shape which is the feature of jet combustion.
Comparing with the high swirl combustion, the jet combustion
does not need the recirculation flow to sustain the flame and the
structure of flame is much simpler [16]. Because of the impact of
carbon dioxide on the turbulent combustion, the high swirl com-
bustion flame may easily be blown out when the fuel turns to
biogas. Therefore, the low swirl flow in LSPN keeps the jet com-
bustion in the combustor while improving the performance of fuel
and air [29]. Considering the huge potential of biogas, the jet
combustion is more suitable for annular combustor of micro gas
turbine.
4.2.2. Effect of equivalence ratio
In order to analyze the effect of equivalence ratio on the tur-
bulent combustion, the flames under various equivalence ratios
were investigated. Fig. 10 shows the transient projections of
chemiluminescence in 0.5s with the equivalence ratio close to 0.5.
The flow rate of air increases when the equivalence ratio decreases.
Five images of each fuel show that the fluctuation of flame still
exists. Comparing with the images in Fig. 8, the high chem-
iluminescence emission area of natural gas significantly enlarges,
 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 8. Transient projections of chemiluminescence in 0.5s under equivalence ratio close to 1.0.
while the change of biogas is not obvious. When the equivalence
ratio drops from 1.0 to 0.5, the air becomes excessive and the in-
crease of airflow almost doubles the velocity of air-fuel mixture, but
the positions of flames under every fuel change less. Thus, it can be
seen that the effect of excess air is very different from carbon
dioxide.
The structure and position of turbulent flame mainly depend on
the velocity of flow and combustion. According to the combustion
theory, the empirical equation of turbulent burning velocity ob-
tained from the experimental data can be written as:
uT ¼ Kðw0 Þm unH
where, w0 is the fluctuating velocity of flow and uH is the laminar
burning velocity whose value is related with physical and chemical
properties of combustible. To homogeneous combustibles at
normal pressure, K ¼ 2.5e5.3, m ¼ 0.8 and n ¼ 0.2. As the previous
analysis, the addition of carbon dioxide decreases the value of uH ,
1305
while w0 changes less because of the less effect of addition on the
flow rate. Hence, the value of uT declines, and the flame is blown
away. Nevertheless, the addition of excess air is different. The air is
the primary reactant of combustion. Therefore, the rise of flow rate
will less influence the physical and chemical properties of
combustible and the value of uH . Moreover, the flow rate signifi-
cantly increases which causes the rise of w0 . Finally, uT increases
and the flames keep the position.
Fig. 11 shows the 3D reconstruction of time averaged flame with
the equivalence ratio close to 0.5. Based on the 3D reconstruction,
the chemiluminescence (CH*) distribution on the inside of the
flame can be illustrated. Although the images in Fig. 10 show less
(3) change of flame position, the change inside the flame is larger when
the equivalence ratio drops. To natural gas, the increase of turbulent
combustion velocity has not caught up the growth of flow velocity
at the outlet of nozzle under the influence of excess air. Therefore,
the length of flame core grows. More reactants are jetted to further
area and the chemiluminescence (CH*) distribution almost extends
1306 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311

Fig. 9. Reconstruction of time average flame under equivalence ratio close to 1.0.
 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 10. Transient projections of chemiluminescence in 0.5s under equivalence ratio close to 0.5.
to the whole region captured on cameras. To biogas, because of the
addition of carbo dioxide, the flame is away from the nozzle outlet
where the flow velocity gradient is the highest. Hence, the chem-
iluminescence (CH*) distribution changes less when the equiva-
lence ratio decreases.
Furthermore, the increase of excess air may weaken the effi-
ciency of mixing performance in the nozzle [28] which affects the
combustion velocity. This is one main reason of the extension of
flame core in the natural gas flame, but the effect is not as large as
carbon dioxide. The excess air increases the fluctuation of flow and
extends the CH* distribution, but the carbo dioxide directly impacts
the safety of flame. Comparing with the natural gas, the flame of
biogas may be hard to ignite and easy to blow out.
4.2.3. Emission of chemiluminescence
According to the previous analysis, the effects of carbon dioxide
and excess air are different. In order to deeply investigate the ef-
fects on turbulent combustion in the combustor, the signals of
1307
chemiluminescence emission captured on cameras were quantifi-
cationally analyzed. Fig. 12 shows the sum of chemiluminescence
emission from the front view under four kinds of fuels. Every kind
of fuel has been analyzed under various equivalence ratios. The
emission of chemiluminescence fluctuates in a certain range under
every operating condition and all the ranges of fluctuation ampli-
tude are less than 25
106. To natural gas, the influence of equiv-
alence ratio on the chemiluminescence is more obvious than the
biogas. Every fluctuation curve is located in a certain range which
separates from each other. The ranges gradually increase with the
decline of equivalence ratio and the change of ranges is more than
62
106. To the three kinds of biogas, the curves interweave with
each other and the ranges of fluctuation with the change of
equivalence ratio are all less than 34
106.
For a deep investigation, the average value and standard devi-
ation of signals were analyzed and the results are shown in Fig. 13.
To natural gas, the time averaged value of chemiluminescence
almost linearly increases with the decrease of equivalence ratio.
1308 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311

Fig. 11. Reconstruction of time average flame under equivalence ratio close to 0.5.
 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 12. Sum of chemiluminescence signals under four kinds of fuels.
The excess air raises the emission of chemiluminescence. With the
addition of carbon dioxide, the trend is changed. To the biogas, the
time averaged value changes less when the equivalence ratio is
larger than 0.7. With the continuous decline of equivalence ratio,
the value begins to decrease.
The curve of biogas 1 which contains 25% carbon dioxide in
Fig. 13(a) shows a larger emission of chemiluminescence
comparing with natural gas when the equivalence ratio is above
0.8. This can be considered as a phenomenon that, to the complete
combustion, the addition of either reactant gas or inert substances
will enhance the formation of CH*. The excess gas may hinder the
combustion process such as extending the heating time of re-
actants, and then slow the consumption of intermediates.
Fig. 13(b) shows the standard deviation which can reflect the
fluctuation intensity of flame. To natural gas, the fluctuation of
flame increases gradually and turn to gentle with the rise of excess
air. To biogas, when the addition of carbon dioxide is less than 60%,
the increase of flame fluctuation grows larger with the reduction of
equivalence ratio. Once the volume fraction of carbon dioxide
reaches 50%, the main combustion area of flame has been blown
away from the region captured on cameras and the captured fluc-
tuation is smaller than other kinds of fuel.
To deeply analyze the instability of combustion, the standard
deviation of relative chemiluminescence emission (the value
divided by the average value) under three kind of fuel was also
calculated and shown in Fig. 13(c). With the decline of equivalence
ratio, the standard deviation of natural gas decrease from 0.079 to
0.043 which means the reduction of combustion instability.
Nevertheless, when the volume fraction of carbon dioxide is 25%,
the standard deviation rises from 0.061 to 0.137. Further, the
standard deviation has grown to 0.22 when the volume fraction of
1309
carbon dioxide reaches 40%. The carbon dioxide in the fuel en-
hances the instability of combustion and the combustion instability
increases with the decline of equivalence ratio.
Combining with the effort of carbon dioxide on the structure
and position of flame and the instability of combustion, the utili-
zation of biogas in micro gas turbine should be paid more attention
to maintain the flame. It seems that the annular combustor with
tangentially arranged nozzles is more suitable whose nozzles can
interact in relation to each other.
5. Conclusions
In this work, the turbulent combustion in the combustor of
micro gas turbine for DES was numerically and experimentally
investigated to study the effect of carbon dioxide in biogas on the
turbulent flame. Three kinds of biogas under various equivalence
ratios were analyzed in the experiment comparing with the natural
gas. The turbulent flame was measured by 3D combustion diag-
nostic based on CTC. According to the results, the following con-
clusions can be drawn.
1) The gap around the nozzle takes about 36% of the total air
entering the combustor under various equivalence ratios, and
the eccentricity of gap and nozzle outlet makes the streamlines
in the combustor asymmetric. Moreover, the flame in the
combustor extends to the wide side of gap.
2) As the inert substance in biogas, carbon dioxide lowers the
burning velocity of turbulent flame. With the increase of carbon
dioxide volume fraction, the combustion flame is gradually
away from the outlet of the nozzle. When the volume fraction of
1310 H. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 147 (2020) 1299e1311
Fig. 13. The average value and standard deviation of chemiluminescence emission
signals.
carbon dioxide is 50%, the distance between the combustion
flame and the nozzle outlet increases the 100 mm.
3) Without the effect of carbon dioxide, the excess air extends the
distribution of chemiluminescence (CH*). When the equivalence
ratio decreased from 1 to 0.5, the chemiluminescence (CH*)
value almost doubled. When adding carbon dioxide to the fuel,
the effect of excess air is weakened and the flames change less
with various equivalence ratios.
4) To natural gas, the decrease of equivalence ratio can damp the
combustion instability. With the increase of carbon dioxide
content in fuel, the stability of combustion becomes worse, and
the instability of combustion increases with the decrease of
equivalence ratio.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National High-tech R&D Program of
China (863 Program No: 2014AA052803) and Research foundation
of Gas Turbine Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
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