Cardiff University Gas Turbine Research Centre

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Plasma Assisted Combustion at GTRC

12-10-2022

Plasma assisted combustion a step closer

Cardiff University Gas Turbine Research Centre researchers have been working closely with Cardiff University’s Advanced High Voltage Engineering Centre (https://lnkd.in/e3hjgkpm) to integrate a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma into a swirl burner to investigate plasma assisted combustion. Yesterday we successfully generated our first plasma in the burner as can be seen in the attached image.

The adoption of ammonia as a hydrogen vector for decarbonisation has been gaining momentum due to advantages around storage and transport, but challenges remain with the combustion of ammonia and NOx emissions. Many research groups are working on this challenge and one promising avenue is leveraging non-thermal plasma to improve operability limits and emissions performance of ammonia combustion systems via targeting enhancement of mainly kinetic effects. Despite the burgeoning academic efforts, there is still a need to fully understand the underlying mechanisms of plasma/flame interactions before we can promote its use for industrial applications. We believe that our setup will provide an essential tool for the study of plasma/flame interaction and for the validation of detailed kinetic mechanisms.

Enabled by FLEXIS and the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)

Special thanks to:
Prof Manu Haddad (https://lnkd.in/eKjxrgeS)
Dr David Clark (https://lnkd.in/eazn2pUc)