PhD Defency by Jie Jan

Principal supervisor:
Professor Peter Glarborg
DTU Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Co supervisors:
Associate professor Hao Wu
DTU Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Senior researcher Hamid Hasmehi
DTU Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Examiners:
Associate professor Jakob M. Christensen (chaiman)
DTU Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Associate professor Elna Heimdal Nilsson
Lund University, Sweden

Senior research engineer Kar Mun Pang
MAN Energy Solutions

Chairperson at defence:
Senior researcher Brian Brun Hansen
DTU Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Popular summary
Study of ammonia oxidation and O3-assisted oxidation

In the context of global warming, ammonia is of tremendous interest out of its carbon-free nature and its future based on renewable energy. As a combustion fuel, ammonia has advantages in storage, transportation, energy density and a developed industry originated from the fossil fuel. However, ammonia also presents deficiencies in combustion such as low reactivity, poor flammability, and high fuel-NOx production. This thesis aims to understand and improve the combustion behavior of ammonia from a chemical kinetic perspective.

By experiments in flow reactors, an improved kinetic mechanism for ammonia oxidation is developed and tentative O3 addition is tested. The reaction mechanism of O3 reactions has been improved as well. The research extends the knowledge of ammonia combustion in terms of combustion conditions. The new mechanisms have more reasonable prediction to the oxidation of ammonia oxidation and reactions with O3. These achievements can be utilized for combustion optimization and troubleshooting. With further simplification, the mechanisms can be implemented to CFD modeling improving the modeling accuracy.