Effects of Ammonia (NH₃) on Flame Characteristics of Methane (CH₄) External Premixed Combustion

¹ Mechanical Engineering, Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia
² Centre for Sustainable Energy Studies, Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: willy@petra.ac.id

Abstract

Methane has long been proposed as an alternative to heavy hydrocarbon fuels due to its low carbon content. However, considering the effect of climate change and the need to transition to zero-carbon, ammonia has recently gained popularity as a sustainable fuel. Nevertheless, previous studies have highlighted the poor combustion of ammonia and the need to blend it with other fuels like methane. As such, this study looks for parameters from the results of the fire of external combustion of premixed methane-ammonia gas. The study was conducted by burning stoichiometry first and then using a volume ratio as the content of the methane-ammonia mixture (ammonia concentration used 0-50%). The gas that comes out of the gas cylinder was adjusted in pressure and flow before mixing and then flowed into the burner to be combusted. The flame propagating from the burner was recorded in a high-speed camera and was used to define the combustion characteristics such as the flame height, flame angle, and dimensionless flame height. The higher concentration of ammonia in the fuel mixture was found to shorten the flame height and dimensionless flame height, while the flame angle became wider.