Numerical investigation of liquid methanol evaporation and oxy-combustion inside a button-cell ITM reactor

A numerical study is conducted to investigate the performance of a button-cell LNO-ITM reactor utilizing the soot-free oxygenated liquid methanol under oxy-combustion condition. The Euler-Lagrange approach is utilized to solve discrete phase model. Taylor analogy breakup (TAB) model is used due to its convenience with the cases of low injection speed. A plain orifice atomizer is used for fuel atomization and CO₂ is used as sweep gas. A semi-empirical oxygen permeation model (ABn model) is validated with the available experimental data and is, then, applied in the present model. Over a wide range of inlet fuel concentrations, the results showed increase in oxygen permeation flux of about five times in cases of reacting conditions as compared to the cases of non-reacting cases. The results showed high oxygen permeation flux at low inlet fuel concentrations due to the improvement in the oxygen to fuel ratio toward the stoichiometric conditions. At inlet gas temperatures of 1223 K, 1123 K, 1023 K and 923 K, the combustion temperature approached 1423 K, 1347 K, 1284 K and 1231 K, respectively, indicating an average combustion efficiency of 43% at moderate inlet gas temperatures. High fuel concentration at low inlet sweep flow resulted in high oxygen flux and high combustion temperature.