AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF SULFUR-NITROGEN INTERACTIONS IN TURBULENT SPRAY FLAMES

The effects of fuel sulphur on thermal and feel-NO formation and destr uction processes in liquid fuel, spray flames were studied using quino line and tetrahydrothiophene to simulate fuel-N and fuel-S respectivel y. The exist gas NO emissions were found to be affected by the additio n of sulphur to the fuel to an extent which was dependent on the fuel sulphur to nitrogen ratio, burner operating conditions and fuel type. The increase in fuel-NO emission, at a particular operating condition, due to sulphur addition, was in most cases linearly dependent on the sulphur concentration in the fuel. When the burner was operated in low NOx mode by staging the combustion air, the interactions were found t o be dependent on the primary-zone fuel/air equivalence ratios, with g reater enhancement observed for fuel-rich conditions. A practical cons equence of these results is that the possible reductions in the NO emi ssion by staging are dependent among other factors on the sulphur cont ent of the fuel since the sulphur appears to be reducing the efficienc y of the NO reduction processes in the locally fuel-rich regions of th e air-staged flame. Thermal-NO emissions were reduced with sulphur add ition for fuel-lean operation of the primary stage but were relatively unaffected when operating fuel-rich. Comparative studies using SO2 as the sulphur additive produced similar results, but the magnitude of t he changes in the NO emission was less than that found using tetrahydr othiophene. The effect of sulphur on the NO emissions from combustion of other liquid fuels (containing natural, rather than added fuel nitr ogen) was also studied using tetrahydrothiophene, tert-butyldisulphide and SO2 as the sulphur dopants.