Development of Low-NOx Emission DME (Dimethyl Ether) Combustor

This study focuses on fundamental characteristics of DME (Dimethyl Ether) combustion, aiming at the development of low-NOx combustion. DME is one of the most promising new alternative fuels owing to its cleanness of the exhaust gas and wide applications. Combustion experiments using a diffusion burner were conducted for characterizing DME through the comparison with the results of LPG and 13A-city gas. Experimental results demonstrated a high potential of DME for a boiler and a gas-turbine fuel. DME has a wide stable-combustion range compared with those of the other fuels. In this study, the concept of the low-NOx combustion, referred to as the tube-nested combustion, was applied to the DME combustion. This tube-nested combustor consists of tube banks to cool the burning flame leading to NOx reduction. Then, the NOx emission of the DME combustion was successfully reduced to a level suitable for practical applications.