Abstract

The increasing demand to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and also of carbon dioxide emissions is fueling the research for alternative approaches to energy generation. Using trapped-vortex technology to burn syngas in gas turbine burners potentially offers several advantages over other approaches: it makes it possible to burn a variety of fuels with medium and low calorific values; the NOx emissions have very low levels without dilution or post-combustion treatments; it provides extended flammability limits and improves flame stability. The systems used so far generate a pilot flame by means of combustion in cavities to create premixed high-speed flows. This technical article presents a study to design a device that operates entirely on the principle of trapped vortices that intrinsically improve the mixing of hot combustion gases with fresh mixture, a characteristic that is essential both to diluted combustion and to Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion.