Abstract:
Ammonia, as an ideal clean energy carrier for balancing power demand response and renewable energy intermittency, has garnered international attention. Currently, the development of ammonia combustion technology faces demands for low emissions, multi-fuel compatibility, wide load regulation, and multi-scenario applications. Existing combustion technologies based on traditional hydrocarbon fuels struggle to efficiently utilize ammonia fuel. The focus of enhancing the clean and efficient combustion of ammonia lies in the exploration of optimization strategies for combustion structure and intelligent combustion technology. First, the main technical challenges of ammonia-blended combustion are analyzed, and then the nitrogen conversion pathways and NO
x suppression mechanisms under various conditions are summarized. Based on this, the paper reviews the technical characteristics, combustion control mechanisms, and current application status of major existing ammonia combustion technologies. Furthermore, it explores feasible schemes and technical routes to enhance the clean and efficient combustion performance of multi-fuel/ammonia mixtures from aspects such as staged and zoned combustion organization, fuel decomposition, spatiotemporal mixing characteristics, and intelligent prediction and design control. The results indicate that the implementation of staged and zoned combustion strategies for nitrogen - containing fuels and hydrocarbon fuels in their respective reactions with oxidizers, concurrently incorporating the modification of ammonia fuel, and synergistically attaining the optimal matching of temperature, oxygen concentration, and residence time, holds the potential to emerge as an efficacious means for the stable and clean combustion of ammonia - blended fuels.Furthermore, the advent of breakthroughs in the scaling - up technologies that bridge the gap from laboratory - scale to industrial - grade combustion chambers, in conjunction with the seamless integration of AI technology, is anticipated to expeditiously propel the industrial realization of ammonia combustion technology.The aim is to provide theoretical and technical references for the development and design of multi-fuel ammonia-blended combustion technologies and burners.