International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Effects of H2 and CO2 addition on the heat transfer characteristics

of laminar premixed biogas–hydrogen Bunsen flame
Z.L. Wei a,⇑, C.W. Leung a,⇑, C.S. Cheung a, Z.H. Huang b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effects of H2 and CO2 on the heat transfer characteristics of the laminar premixed biogas–hydrogen
Received 6 October 2015 flame were investigated quantitatively. The equivalence ratio was kept to 1.2 so as to obtain the stable
Received in revised form 22 February 2016 flames, and the heat fluxes and flame temperatures of laminar biogas jet flames with different H2 (10–
Accepted 22 February 2016
50%) and CO2 (25–50%) volumetric fractions were measured experimentally, and that of the methane
Available online 25 March 2016
and LPG flames were also measured for the comparison purpose. In addition, the total heat transfer rates
were calculated based on the experimental data. The results show that the total heat transfer rate of
Keywords:
impinging biogas flames can be improved evidently with the hydrogen enrichment, and the optimum
H2 and CO2 effect
Biogas–hydrogen fuel
hydrogen enrichment is recommended to be aH2 = 0.3 based on this study. With this hydrogen enrich-
Heat transfer ment, the total heat transfer rate can be enhanced by about 20–30% at all tested heating distances.
Flame temperature The higher flame temperature and stronger diffusivity caused by H2 addition can lead to the larger tem-
perature gradient and more heating area with the high temperature, respectively, which are the major
reasons of its promotion effects. Besides, with the same hydrogen enrichment, the BG75 flame with
the less energy input has a better heating performance than the methane flame, while the BG50 flame
has the minimum total heat transfer rate. CO2 exerts its influences on the heat transfer characteristics
through suppressing the reaction OH + CO = CO2 + H to weaken the combustion and lowering the flame
temperature by its larger specific heat capacity and the reduced proportion of the combustible compo-
nent. However, the larger specific heat capacity of CO2 can also lead to the moderate reduction of flame
temperature in the wall jet region, which results in the better heating performance of the BG75 flame.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Increasing concerns about the climate change and depletion of
fossil fuel have prompted much more efforts on researches of the
renewable and sustainable energy. Biogas, which can be generated
from anaerobic digesters or landfills via biological degradation [1],
is considered as one of the promising alternative clean fuels in the
future and has attracted the increasing attention in recent years.
Compared to traditional fossil fuels, such as liquid petroleum gas
(LPG) and gasoline, biogas does not contribute to the increase in
greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to its short carbon cycle [2]. Various
countries are endeavoring to promote the biogas utilization so as
to reduce the GHGs and other pollutions. The 10% of fuels con-
sumed in the transportation system are expected to be replaced
with the biofuels by 2020 in European Union [3]. In addition, bio-
⇑ Corresponding authors. Fax: +852 23654703 (C.W. Leung).
E-mail addresses: zhilongwei.xjtu@gmail.com (Z.L. Wei), mmcwl@polyu.edu.hk
(C.W. Leung).
gas has been widely utilized in the rural area and its consumption
will increase rapidly in China [4].
Biogas is mainly composed of methane (CH4) and carbon diox-
ide (CO2), with a small proportion of water (H2O), nitrogen (N2),
hydrogen (H2) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S) [5]. Depending on
the various sources, CH4 content in biogas can range from 40% to
80% while CO2 varies between 20% and 60% [6–8]. Because of the
lower volumetric fraction of methane, biogas has a lower heating
value comparing to the natural gas. Furthermore, CO2 composition
in the biogas can exert several negative effects on the fuel thermal
and combustion characteristics [9–11]. Several experimental and
numerical studies have been conducted in order to obtain a better
understanding of the biogas fuel characteristics. Díaz-González
et al. [12] experimentally determined the characteristic parame-
ters of a biogas composed of 60% CH4 and 40% CO2. The reduced
flame speed, as well as changes in flame structure and the radia-
tion pattern, is reported in this work. Anggono et al. [2,13] exper-
imentally measured the laminar burning velocity of the biogas
with the composition of 66.4% CH4 and 30.6% CO2 using a

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.02.064
0017-9310/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
360 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366
fan-stirred combustion vessel. Results suggest that biogas–air mix-
ture has a narrower flammability and the decreased flame speed
than that of methane-air mixture due to the CO2 dilution.
Mordaunt and Pierce [14] investigated the effects of CO2 propor-
tion on the flame stability and emissions of biogas–air flame using
a swirl-stabilized dump combustor, which indicates that the CO
emission increases and the flame is weakened. The negative effects
of CO2 on the flame stability, the flame structure and the flamma-
bility of biogas flames were also experimentally confirmed and/or
analyzed by other researchers using various combustion facilities
[15–18]. These researches suggest the negative influences of CO2
on the combustion characteristics of biogas fuel and provide sev-
eral valuable points on the practical utilization of biogas–air
mixture.
Though the direct utilization of biogas can reduce the carbon
dioxide emission effectively and be prospective to alternate a con-
siderable part of fossil fuels, its low calorific value and relatively
poor flame stability would impede its applications in domestic
and industrial facilities. A possible and effective solution to cope
with its defects is to blend biogas with another high calorific value
hydrocarbon fuel and some researches have been conducted to
explore the reliability and applicability of this method [19–21].
Hydrogen, as an environmentally friendly alternative fuel, has
received much interest for a long period of time. Methane, propane
and butane with hydrogen addition have been widely investigated
in recent decades, suggesting the distinct improvement of hydro-
gen addition on the fuel combustion characteristics [22–24]. Addi-
tionally, due to the promising prospects of biogas utilization,
several experiments have also been conducted using biogas–hy-
drogen mixture as the fuel to investigate effects of hydrogen
enrichment on the combustion and emission performances of engi-
nes [25–27]. Zhen et al. [28,29] experimentally studied effects of
hydrogen enrichment on the flame stability of biogas flames with
CH4 percentage varying from 40% to 60% and measured the heat
transfer rate. Results suggest the improved effects of hydrogen
enrichment on the flame stability, and show that the heat transfer
can be promoted through hydrogen addition. Though several
works have been performed to explore the fuel characteristics of
biogas–hydrogen mixture, more studies would be needed to estab-
lish a comprehensive understanding of such a blending fuel. Fur-
thermore, in consideration of the wide utilization of biogas fuel
in heating facilities, more researches should be conducted to
exactly figure out how H2 and CO2 composition exert significant
influences on the heat transfer characteristics of biogas–hydrogen
mixture.
The objective of this study is to quantitatively analyze the
effects of H2 and CO2 compositions on the heat transfer character-
istics of the laminar premixed biogas–hydrogen flame so as to
improve the understanding of such a new fuel. Considering that
the higher proportion of CH4 in biogas is rarely investigated in
the previous studies, biogas with CH4 composition varying from
50% to 75% will be chosen. Methane and LPG will be used for the
comparison purpose. The hydrogen will be added according to sev-
eral volumetric fractions (10–50%). The equivalence ratio for each
fuel mixture in this study is kept to / = 1.2 at which the flame is
relatively stable. The heat fluxes, temperature distribution will be
measured experimentally, and the total heat transfer rate will be
calculated. Based on the experimental data, effects of H2 and CO2
on heat transfer characteristics will be discussed quantitatively.
2. Experimental apparatus
Fig. 1 illustrates the layout of experimental apparatus used in
this study. A data acquisition system, a gas supply system and a
Bunsen burner consist of the whole system. The data acquisition
Heat flux sensor Amplifier
Thermocouple
Data acquisitor
Impingement copper plate
Screen mesh
Burner Mixing chamber
PC
CH4
Flow meter CO2
Pressure gauge
Regulating valve
Air compressor
H2
Fig. 1. Experimental apparatus.
system is composed of a temperature measuring instrumentation
and a rig to measure the flame heat flux. The flame temperature
is measured using an uncoated type B thermocouple with the
0.25 mm wire diameter whose accuracy is ±0.5%, and measured
data will be corrected for radiation and conduction losses [30].
The local heat flux of the impinging flames is measured with a heat
flux sensor which is embedded at the center of the copper plate.
The plate temperature is stabilized at 313 K with the cooling water.
The 2
2 mm sensor (Vatell Corporation, Model HFM-6D/H),
which has the calibrated accuracy of ±3%, is supplied with a NIST
traceable calibration certificate that provides the information nec-
essary to convert the registered signals to heat flux magnitudes.
The Bunsen flame is located and fixed using a 3D displacement
platform. More details of the experimental apparatus can be found
in [28,29].
Pure CH4 and CO2 are adopted to emulate the biogas according
to the volume ratios of 7.5:2.5 and 5:5, denoted as BG75 and BG50,
respectively. Pure H2 is added to the biogas at a volume ratio vary-
ing from 10% to 50% in this study, and this volume ratio is defined
as:
V H2
aH2 ¼ ð1Þ
V CH4 þ V CO2
where V H2 , V CH4 and V CO2 denote the volume fractions of hydrogen,
methane and carbon dioxide, respectively. CH4, CO2 and H2 used in
this study are the commercial gases with the purity over 99.99%,
while air is provided by an air compressor. Commercial standard
LPG, which consists of 30% propane and 70% butane, is used to gen-
erate a comparison flame. The energy input of tested flames and
corresponding adiabatic flame temperatures are provided in Table 1.
 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366 361

Table 1 44 30
The energy input of tested flames and corresponding adiabatic flame temperatures. Laminar burning velocity
Flame height
Fuel / Re aH 2 Energy Adiabatic flame 27

Laminar burning velocity (cm/s)

input (J/s) temperature (K) 40

BG75 1.2 1000 0.0 480.4 2052

Flame height (mm)

24
BG75 1.2 1000 0.1 480.2 2063
BG75 1.2 1000 0.2 480.0 2074 36
BG75 1.2 1000 0.3 479.8 2084
21
BG75 1.2 1000 0.4 479.6 2093
BG75 1.2 1000 0.5 479.4 2102 32
BG50 1.2 800 0.1 359.7 1929 18
BG75 1.2 800 0.1 384.1 2063
CH4 1.2 800 0.1 398.1 2141
28
LPG 1.2 800 0.1 414.9 2207 15

It can be seen that, with the increased hydrogen addition, the
energy input and the adiabatic flame temperature of biogas fuel
are decreased and increased respectively, which are caused by the
lower volumetric heating value and the higher adiabatic flame tem-
perature of hydrogen. Meanwhile, the CO2 can reduce the energy
input and adiabatic flame temperature effectively. Unburnt gases
are controlled by the calibrated flow meters with the accuracy of
±5% and then fully mixed in the mixing chamber which is filled with
stainless steel beads. The flow velocity at the outlet of burner is con-
trolled to be a proper value to guarantee the laminar flow with
flame jet Reynolds number less than 2000. The flame jet Reynolds
number is evaluated based on unburnt mixture gases. The straight
nozzle of the Bunsen burner has an inner diameter of 9 mm and a
length of 400 mm. The length of nozzle is long enough to obtain
the fully developed laminar flow at the nozzle exit.
All the data were measured three times and the averaged
results were used to perform an uncertainty analysis [31]. Using
a 95% confidence level, the uncertainties are 0.5% in premixed
flame height, 0.8% in flame temperature and 0.7% in heat flux.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Effects of H2 enrichment
Fig. 2 illustrates the digital images of laminar premixed BG75
impinging flames against different hydrogen enrichment at
Re = 1000, / = 1.2, while Fig. 3 shows the corresponding flame
height and laminar burning velocity of free BG75 flames with dif-
ferent hydrogen enrichments. It is obvious that, with the increase
in aH2, the flame surface become much brighter and the steadily
decreased flame height causes the varied impinging flame struc-
ture as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The flame heights were measured
using the digital images with the software, while the laminar burn-
ing velocity was calculated using the PREMIX code [32] of CHEM-
KIN II with the mechanism GRI 3.0 [33]. The ideal flame height
Hflame can be obtained using the equation as follows [34]:
24 12
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Hydrogen ratio
Fig. 3. Flame height and laminar burning velocity of premixed BG75 Bunsen flames
with different hydrogen addition at / = 1.2 and Re = 1000.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
D u2  S2L
Hflame ¼  ð2Þ
2 SL
where D, u and SL denote the nozzle inner diameter, the average
flow velocity at nozzle exit and the laminar burning velocity,
respectively. Apparently, according to the Eq. (2), though SL
increases linearly, Hflame would decline nonlinearly as u is kept
almost constant, just as the results shown in Fig. 3, which can result
in the variation of the impinging flame structure. In addition, with
the increase in aH2, the active radicals would be produced much
more than that without hydrogen addition. This brings about the
more intensive combustion process and the brighter flame surface
[35].
The comparison of local heat fluxes of laminar premixed BG75
flames with different aH2 are shown in Fig. 4. At H = 10 mm, zero
heat flux near the stagnation point means the presence of cool
core, and its distribution narrows with the increase in aH2 due to
the lower flame height. Meanwhile, the maximum heat flux occurs
around the cool core where the chemical reactions take place to
release a large amount of heat, leading to the fast rise of the local
heat flux. As the hydrogen proportion increases, the location of the
peak heat flux moves toward the stagnation point with its value
enhanced from around 250–380 kW/m2 by more than 50%. The
location movement is also the result of the reduced cool core area,
while the reasons for the boosted peak heat flux can be interpreted
as follows. Firstly, the enhanced flame temperature caused by the
hydrogen addition can effectively improve the heat transfer pro-
cess through increasing the temperature difference and the veloc-
ity of burned mixture. The increased flame tip temperature can be
confirmed by the measured data shown in Fig. 5(a). It clearly
shows the rising trend of the flame temperature at the flame tip

10mm

30mm

αH2=0 αH2=0.1 αH2=0.3 αH2=0.5

Fig. 2. Digital images of BG75 impinging flames with hydrogen enrichment at / = 1.2 and Re = 1000.
362 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366

400 2150

350 αH2=0 H=10mm 2100

αH2=0.1 H=10mm
300 αH2=0.3 H=10mm 2050
Local heat flux (KW/m )
2

αH2=0.5 H=10mm
250

Flame temperature (K)

αH2=0 H=30mm 2000
αH2=0.1 H=30mm
200
αH2=0.3 H=30mm 1950
150 αH2=0.5 H=30mm
1900
100
1850
50
1800
0
Measured flame tip temperature
1750
-50
Adiabatic flame temperature
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
1700
Radial distance from stagnation point (mm) 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
αH2
(a) Distributions of local heat fluxes.
(a) Flame tip temperature and adiabatic flame temperature.
140

120 H=10mm α H2=0

α H2=0.1 1600
100
α H2=0.3
80 α H2=0.5 1500
αH2=0
Local heat flux (KW/m )

αH2=0.1
2

60
1400 αH2=0.2
40 αH2=0.3
Radial temperature (K)

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 1300 αH2=0.4
140
αH2=0.5
120 H=30mm 1200
100

80 1100

60
1000
40

20 900
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Radial distance from stagnation point (mm) 800
(b) Local heat fluxes in the wall jet region.
700
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig. 4. Radial heat flux profiles of the laminar premixed BG75 flames with hydrogen
addition at / = 1.2 and Re = 1000. Radial distance (mm)

(b) Radial temperature distribution of burned gases

as the aH2 increases. Furthermore, the increased temperature can attaching the plat surface at H=30mm.
further reduce the density of burned gases, causing the accelerated
velocity of burned gases according to the flow continuity law. Sec- Fig. 5. The measured temperature distribution of the laminar premixed BG75
ondly, the large amounts of reactive species existing at the flame flames with hydrogen addition at / = 1.2 and Re = 1000.

tip can enhance the convection by their diffusion and exothermic

recombination on the impingement surface [36]. As the hydrogen
fraction increases, due to its high diffusivity and flammability,
the diffusion effect of species can be improved effectively while
the quantity of active radicals can also be enhanced in the reaction
zone [22]. This can strengthen the promotion effects of diffusion
and exothermic recombination on the heat transfer process. Lastly,
the lower flame height means the smaller cool core, which can
reduce the energy and momentum loss of unburnt gases induced
by the impingement and the boundary layer effect. This can also
make for the heat transfer process to some extent. With the
increase in the radius r, the local heat fluxes drop fast and show lit-
tle differences in the wall jet region until r = 20 mm. After that, as
shown in Fig. 4(b), the discrepancies between different flames
become slightly evident because the promotion effects of the high
H2 diffusivity on the diffusion combustion become more manifest.
As shown in Fig. 4, more uniform distributions of heat fluxes are
obtained at larger H. The higher flame height can lead to the larger
stagnation heat flux due to the less cooling effect. Thus the stagna-
tion heat flux of the raw biogas flame has a much higher value of
approximate 320 kW/m2 which is about two or three times the val-
ues of other conditions. However, with the increase in the radius,
its heat flux drops rapidly to the lowest in the wall jet region. In
addition, the local heat fluxes of biogas flames with higher hydro-
gen fraction are lower in the stagnation region but become higher
in the wall jet region as shown in Fig. 4. These variations can be
attributed to the high diffusivity and reactivity of hydrogen. Specif-
ically, as the hydrogen fraction in the unburnt gases increases, the
flame height is decreased and the flame temperature near the cen-
terline would drop more evidently due to the cooling effect, while
the heat released by the diffusion combustion is hardly transferred
to the stagnation point due to the outward impingement flow.
These eventually result in the temperature drop at the stagnation
point as shown in Fig. 5(b). Thus the cooling effect dominates the
drop of heat flux at the stagnation point as the hydrogen addition
is increased. In the wall jet region, with the increased hydrogen
fraction, the high diffusivity of hydrogen can lead to the stronger
mass diffusion and the impingement flow can promote the
 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366
outward heat transfer effectively, which can result in a wider dif-
fusive combustion zone and the increased flame temperature in
the wall jet region as shown in Figs. 2 and 5(b). Therefore, the
flame with higher hydrogen enrichment has the larger heat fluxes
in the wall jet region as shown in Fig. 4(b). Additionally, heat flux
of the BG75 flame with high hydrogen fraction has the maximum
value away from the stagnation point, and the corresponding flame
temperature distribution illustrated in Fig. 5(b) shows a similar
profile. Because of the preferential diffusion at the flame tip, the
fuel with high fraction of hydrogen would suffer more intensive
mass diffusion there [37], which can bring about more serious
incomplete combustion, while the burned gases near centerline
will suffer more intensive cooling effects due to the shorter flame
height. This can lead to the lower temperature distribution near
the centerline and less effective heat transfer in the stagnation
zone. On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 5(b), the radial temper-
ature goes up again at about r = 8 mm which is consistent with the
position of the off-stagnation peak. This can be attributed to that
the flame with higher hydrogen enrichment would have a more
intensive diffusion combustion which can heat up the burned mix-
ture around the stagnation region. Furthermore, the burned gases
flow sideways due to the acceleration of the velocity component
normal to the flame front after expansion, which can cause a dip
in the velocity field above the flame tip [38,39]. Eventually, the
maximum heat flux of flame with more hydrogen addition occurs
away from the stagnation point as shown in Fig. 4.
The total heat transfer rate of laminar premixed BG75-hydrogen
flames at Re = 1000, / = 1.2 are illustrated in Fig. 6. With the mea-
sured local heat flux, the total heat transfer rate can be integrated
up to 30 mm along the radial direction in consideration of that the
final results are slightly influenced with further integration. As
shown in Fig. 6, it is apparent that the hydrogen addition can sig-
nificantly enhance the total heat transfer rate at either small or
large H. However, the rising rate slows down as hydrogen propor-
tion increases, especially evident at large H. At small H, the hydro-
gen addition can shorten the flame height evidently and enhance
the maximum flame temperature as shown in Figs. 2 and 5(a),
respectively. As a result, the mixture with higher proportion of
hydrogen has the higher local heat fluxes and larger effective heat-
ing area at small H as shown in Fig. 4. Therefore, the total heat
transfer rate rises evidently at H = 5 mm with the increase in
hydrogen addition. When the heating distance exceeds 15 mm,
though the flame with higher hydrogen addition would suffer
more ambient air entrainment, its higher temperature distribution
320
300
Total heat transfer rate(W)
280
260
240
220
200
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
H(mm)
Fig. 6. Total heat transfer rate profiles of the laminar premixed BG75 flames with
hydrogen addition at / = 1.2 and Re = 1000.
363
in the wall jet region can compensate and overcome the cooling
influences to improve the heat transfer process. Just as the previ-
ous discussion, due to the high diffusivity of hydrogen, the flame
with hydrogen addition has a wider burned zone and its tempera-
ture in the wall jet region is enhanced with the increased hydrogen
enrichment, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5(b). Since the annulus heating
area increases significantly with the radius, the variation of the
heat flux at larger radius can exert more evident effects on the total
heat transfer rate. Hence the increased temperature in the wall jet
region can bring about the rising trend of total heat transfer rate at
larger heating distance. Additionally, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6,
after the hydrogen enrichment exceeding 30%, the measured flame
tip temperature shows fewer enhancements, and the total heat
transfer rate varies slightly in a wide range of H. Hence, it can be
suggested that 30% hydrogen addition can be regarded as an opti-
mum choice to improve heating performance of laminar premixed
BG75 impinging flame considering that the hydrogen enrichment
exceeding 30% can only further exert limited improvement in a
wide range of heating distance, especially at large H.
3.2. Effects of CO2 composition
The direct images of laminar premixed impinging flames at
/ = 1.2, aH2 = 0.1, Re = 800 are shown in Fig. 7. LPG, as an important
fuel for the combustion facility, is adopted as a comparison in order
to help fully understand the heat transfer characteristics of biogas
fuel. As shown in Fig. 7, LPG flame has a similar flame height with
that of CH4 flame, which is caused by their almost same laminar
flame speed at this condition. With the increase in the CO2 propor-
tion, the flame height is enhanced obviously, denoting the decrease
in the laminar flame speed. What is more, the luminescence
becomes dim as the CO2 percentage increases, suggesting the
weakened combustion. When CO2 is introduced into the mixture,
it can suppress the oxidation of CO which is a critical step for
hydrocarbon combustion. In addition, CO2 can lower the flame
temperature by reducing the heat release of combustible fuel,
absorbing more heat due to its larger specific heat capacity, and
more radiation loss caused by its molecular structure [14,40]. As
a result, the combustion can be weakened significantly.
The local heat fluxes of four flames at / = 1.2, aH2 = 0.1, Re = 800
are compared in Fig. 8. At H = 10 mm, LPG flame shows a similar
distribution of the local heat flux with that of CH4, and the maxi-
mum local heat fluxes of these two flames are quite close with
the value of about 300 kW/m2. However, LPG flame has a slightly
higher heat flux than that of CH4 flame in the wall jet region as
shown in Fig. 8(b), which could be the result of its largest energy
input and more intensive diffusion combustion. Though the adia-
αH2=0 batic flame temperature of LPG fuel is higher than that of CH4 fuel,
αH2=0.1 the measured flame temperature at the flame tip for the LPG flame
αH2=0.2 is relatively lower than that of CH4 flame as shown in Fig. 9(a). This
αH2=0.3 can be resulted from the preferential diffusion effects which can
αH2=0.4 weaken the combustion intensity of the LPG flame at its flame
αH2=0.5 tip under the fuel-rich condition and strengthen its diffusion com-
bustion [37]. As CO2 is added, the enhanced flame height leads to
the outward move of peak local heat flux position, and peak local
heat flux drops by up to approximate 30%. This can be interpreted
by the lower temperature and slower velocity of burned gases. The
lower temperature can be reflected by the measured data shown in
Fig. 9(a), which indicates CO2 can reduce the flame temperature
noticeably. In particular, CO + OH = H + CO2 is a quite significant
element reaction for the complete combustion of hydrocarbon fuel
[40]. This reaction can be remarkably suppressed by introducing a
27 30 33
large amount of CO2 into the unburnt mixture, which can lead to
the increased CO emission, meaning the incomplete combustion
and less heat release. Meanwhile, the existence of CO2 in the
unburnt mixture can directly reduce the energy input and
364 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366

10mm

30mm

LPG CH4 BG75 BG50

Fig. 7. Digital images of LPG and biogas impinging flames at / = 1.2, aH2 = 0.1 and Re = 800.

350 2300

300
CH4 H=10mm
BG75 H=10mm 2200
Local heat flux (KW/m )
2

BG50 H=10mm
250
LPG H=10mm 2100

Flame temperature (K)

CH4 H=30mm
200
BG75 H=30mm
BG50 H=30mm 2000
150
LPG H=30mm
100 1900

50 1800

0
1700 Measured flame tip temperature
-50 Adiabatic flame temperature
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
1600
Radial distance from the stagnation point (mm) BG50 BG75 CH4 LPG
Fuel
(a) Distributions of local heat fluxes.
(a) Flame tip temperature and adiabatic flame temperature.
120
H=10mm CH4
100 1500
BG75
80 BG50 BG50
LPG 1400 BG75
Local heat flux (KW/m )

60
2

CH4
40 1300 LPG
Radial temperature (K)

20
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 1200
120

100 H=30mm
1100
80

60
1000
40

20 900
0
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
800
Radial distance from the stagnation point (mm)

700
(b) Local heat fluxes in the wall jet region. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Radial distance (mm)
Fig. 8. Radial heat flux profiles of the laminar premixed LPG and biogas flames at
/ = 1.2, Re = 800 and aH2 = 0.1. (b) Radial temperature distribution of burned gases
attaching the plat surface at H=30mm.
consume more heat due to its larger specific heat capacity. As a Fig. 9. The measured temperature distribution of the laminar premixed LPG and
result, flame temperature can be reduced apparently as shown in biogas flames at / = 1.2, aH2 = 0.1 and Re = 800.

Fig. 9(a). As a result of the lower flame temperature, the velocity

of burned gases will be smaller than that of higher temperature,
resulting in the less effective convective heat transfer. Hence, the
maximum local heat flux drops with the increase in CO2 propor-
tion. Additionally, it is should be noted that the local heat fluxes
of the BG75 flame are slightly higher than that of the CH4 flame
in the wall jet region as shown in Fig. 8(b). This can be explained
as follows. Though the existence of CO2 can reduce the flame tem-
perature, its larger specific heat capacity can decelerate the drop-
ping rate of flame temperature compared to that of the CH4
flame when they suffering the same cooling influences of ambient
air. Meanwhile, the larger flame height means its burned gases can
suffer relatively less cooling effects in the wall jet region. As a
whole, this can lead to the higher flame temperature in the wall
 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366
280
260
Total heat transfer rate(W)
240
220
200
180
160
140
4 8 12 16 20 24 28
H(mm)
Fig. 10. Total heat transfer rate profiles of the laminar premixed LPG and biogas
flames at / = 1.2, Re = 800 and aH2 = 0.1.
jet region, which can then promote the heat transfer in the wall jet
region as shown in Fig. 8(b).
At H = 30 mm, it can be seen that the stagnation heat flux of
BG50 flame is the maximum with a value of approximate
260 kW/m2, while that of other flames are around 100 kW/m2. This
is resulted from the differences of flame heights as the previous
discussion. However, the heat flux of the BG50 flame has a fastest
dropping trend along the radial direction. This can be attributed to
that the large amount of CO2 in the BG50 fuel weakens its diffusion
combustion and reduces the heat release, which finally leads to its
faster dropping trend of flame temperature along the radial direc-
tion than that of other flames as given in Fig. 9(b). Besides, though
the flame temperature of BG75 is lower than that of CH4 and LPG,
the local heat fluxes of the BG75 flame are slightly higher than that
of other two flames in the stagnation region, while its values
become lower than that of the LPG flame but are still higher than
that of the CH4 flame in the wall jet region. This can be interpreted
as follows. The higher flame height of the BG75 flame makes it suf-
fer less cooling effect near the centerline, which directly con-
tributes to its higher heat fluxes in the stagnation region.
Furthermore, due to the maximum energy input and more inten-
sive diffusion combustion, the LPG flame can release more heat
in the wall jet region, leading to its highest heat fluxes there, which
can be confirmed by its radial temperature distribution as shown
in Fig. 9(b). Meanwhile, as the previous discussion, such an amount
of CO2 addition gives rise to the larger specific heat capacity of the
mixture, which leads to the higher flame temperature and the local
heat flux of the BG75 flame in the wall jet region than that of the
CH4 flame as shown in Figs. 9(b) and 8(b). It is can be noted that,
for the practical impingement heat transfer process, a suitable
amount of CO2 addition can slow down the decreasing trend of
the temperature along the outward direction, which can overcome
its negative effects to improve the heating performance.
Fig. 10 illustrates the total heat transfer rates of laminar pre-
mixed LPG, methane and biogas flames at / = 1.2, aH2 = 0.1,
Re = 800. It can be seen that the data of the LPG flame have the
highest values in the whole range of H though it has a similar flame
height with that of CH4 flame. This can be attributed to its largest
energy input, more intensive diffusion combustion and the rela-
tively high flame temperature, which contribute to the higher tem-
perature distribution of LPG flame in the wall jet region as shown
in Fig. 9(b), eventually leading to its higher total heat transfer rate
than that of the CH4 flame. While total heat transfer rates of the
BG50 flame are lowest due to its least energy input and lowest
365
flame temperature. It is should be noted that the BG75 flame
LPG shows a better heating performance than that of the CH4 flame
CH4 at most of heating distances even though its energy input is less
BG75 than that of CH4 flame. The total heat transfer rate of the BG75
BG50
flame is slightly smaller than that of the CH4 flame only when H
is less than 10 mm; otherwise it is relatively stable and better than
that of the CH4 flame with its value varying between 230 and
250 kW/m2. The better performance of the BG75 flame at large H
can be explained by its radial temperature distribution shown in
Fig. 9(b). It can be seen that the temperature of BG75 is firstly
higher than that of CH4 flames at the stagnation point and then
becomes smaller around the stagnation region. However, it
becomes higher again in the wall jet region. This trend can be elu-
cidated as follows. The higher flame height of the BG75 flame con-
tributes to the higher flame temperature at the stagnation point
due to suffering less cooling effects. However, the more intensive
32
diffusion combustion of the CH4 flame gives rise to the increase
of its temperature along the radial direction in the diffusion com-
bustion zone. Thus, the flame temperature of the CH4 flame
exceeds that of the BG75 flame and approaches to the maximum
at the edge of the diffusion combustion zone (around r = 9 mm).
Outside the diffusion combustion zone, the cooling effects of the
ambient air become increasingly evident to reduce the flame tem-
perature. Just as the previous discussion, the CO2 addition can
reduce the decreasing rate of temperature due to its larger specific
heat capacity. Thus the BG75 flame temperature drops more mod-
erately and maintains a relatively higher value than that of the CH4
flame in the wall jet region as shown in Fig. 9(b). Furthermore, it is
known that the total heat transfer rate is quite sensitive to the vari-
ation of heating process in the wall jet region because of the larger
element heating area there. Consequently, the BG75 flame has a
higher flame temperature in larger heating area comparing to that
of the CH4 flame, which can improve the heat transfer process and
then enhance the local heat flux and the total heat transfer rate.
Hence it can be concluded that the BG75 flame can show a better
heating performance than that of the methane flame even though
its energy input is less than that of the methane flame, which
means that the BG75 is qualified to substitute methane when using
the laminar premixed Bunsen flame for the impingement heat
transfer.
4. Conclusions
The heat transfer characteristics of laminar premixed biogas
flames with hydrogen enrichment were investigated at different
H2 fractions and CO2 fractions. The heat fluxes and temperature
distributions were measured experimentally. The total heat trans-
fer rates were obtained based on the measured heat fluxes. Effects
of H2 and CO2 compositions on the heat transfer characteristics of
laminar premixed biogas flames were analyzed quantitatively with
the experimental data. The results could be summarized as
follows:
1. As the aH2 increases, the total heat transfer rate of impinging
biogas flame can be enhanced by up to 50% with the slightly
decreased energy input. In addition, for the laminar premixed
Bunsen flame, the optimum hydrogen enrichment to improve
the impingement heating performance of the BG75 flame is rec-
ommended to be aH2 = 0.3 based on this study, which can
obtain about 20–30% promotions on total heat transfer rates
at all tested heating distances.
2. The higher flame temperature and stronger diffusivity induced
by hydrogen enrichment are the major reasons for the improve-
ment of heating performance. The higher temperature
can directly improve heat transfer process through larger
366 Z.L. Wei et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 98 (2016) 359–366
temperature difference, while the wider area with higher heat-
ing temperature caused by the intensive diffusivity of hydrogen
can effectively and efficiently improve the heat transfer perfor-
mance in the wall jet region.
3. CO2 can exert influences on the heat transfer process through
its reactivity and dilution/thermal effects. Its reactivity can sup-
press the CO oxidization through the reaction OH + CO = CO2 + -
H, while the existence of CO2 can reduce the fraction of
combustible fuel, eventually leading to the less heat release.
Additionally, the flame temperature can be further decreased
by its larger specific heat capacity.
4. It should be noted that the BG75 flame with the less energy
input has a better heating performance than that of the
methane flame when the heating distance exceeds 10mm.
Though such a fraction of CO2 addition could decrease the max-
imum flame temperature, it can also reduce the decreasing rate
of flame temperature in the wall jet region due to its larger
specific heat capacity, as well as the air entrainment due to
the higher flame height. This leads to the higher flame temper-
ature in the wall jet region, which can effectively enhance the
total heat transfer rate of the BG75 flame. Hence, the BG75
can be suggested to replace the methane so as to obtain a same
or even better heating performance as using laminar premixed
Bunsen flame.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank for the fully financial support from the
Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR (B-Q39F) to the
present project.
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