Parameters affecting nitrogen oxides in a coal-fired flow facility system

The unusually high temperature in the primary combustor of the Coal- Fired Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) power generation system causes much higher nitrogen oxides (NO^x) to be produced than in a conventional coal fired generation system. In order to lower the NO^x concentration to an acceptable level, it is important to know how parameters of the MHD power generation system affect the NO^x concentration. This thesis investigates those effects in the Coal-Fired Flow Facility (CFFF) at the University of Tennessee Space Institute under the contract of US Department Of Energy (DOE).

With thermodynamic and kinetic computer codes, the theoretical studies were carried out on the parameters of the CFFF system. The results gathered from the computer codes were analyzed and compared with the experimental data collected during the LMF5J test. The thermodynamic and kinetic codes together modeled the NO^x behavior with reasonable accuracy while some inconsistencies happened at the secondary combustor inlet.