Process for combustion using a shaft actuated swirling combustor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10823053-B2
Application number	US-201916547799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2019
Priority date	Feb 22, 2016
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A combustor having an ion transport membrane therein and an adjustable swirler, which is mechanically connected at an inlet of a combustion zone of the combustor; a combustion system comprising the combustor, a feedback control system adapted to adjust swirler blades of the combustor based on a compositional variation of a fuel stream, and a plurality of feedback control systems to control operational variables within the combustor for an efficient oxy-combustion; and a process for combusting a fuel stream via the combustion system. Various embodiments of the combustor, the combustion system, and the process for combusting the fuel stream are disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for combusting a fuel stream with a shaft actuated swirling combustor comprising:
a cylindrical vessel with an internal cavity;
an ion transport membrane that divides the internal cavity of said cylindrical vessel into a first and a second concentric cylindrical zone, wherein the first concentric cylindrical zone is a feed zone and the second concentric cylindrical zone is a combustion zone;
a first inlet and a first outlet located in the feed zone, and a second inlet and a second outlet located in the combustion zone;
a swirler that is connected to the second inlet, wherein the swirler has a plurality of adjustable blades with adjustable angles, a shaft, a casing and an actuator disposed in the shaft;
a third concentric cylindrical zone which is sandwiched between the first and the second concentric cylindrical zones, defining a sweep zone; and
a third inlet and a third outlet located in the sweep zone, the process comprising:
combusting the fuel stream with molecular oxygen in the combustion zone to form an exhaust stream comprising water vapor and carbon dioxide;
delivering an oxygen-containing stream to the first inlet of the combustor, wherein molecular oxygen present in the oxygen-containing stream is transported to the sweep zone through the ion transport membrane;
flowing a portion of the exhaust stream into the third inlet of the combustor to sweep the molecular oxygen away from the sweep zone and to form an oxygen-enriched stream;
mixing the oxygen-enriched stream with the fuel stream in a mixer to form a combustion mixture; and
delivering the combustion mixture to the second inlet of the combustor, wherein the combustion mixture is expanded and/or agitated in the combustion zone via the swirler and is combusted to form the exhaust stream; and
repeating the flowing, the mixing, and the delivering.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the fuel stream is a syngas stream.

3. The process of claim 1 , further comprising:
expanding the exhaust stream in an expander to generate power.

4. The process of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting the adjustable angles of the adjustable blades of the swirler with the actuator based on a composition of the combustion mixture.

Assignees

• Univ King Fahd Pet & Minerals

Inventors

• Mokheimer Esmail M A
• Sanusi Yinka S

Classifications

• F23C7/002

  the air being submitted to a rotary or spinning motion (cyclonic combustion chamber F23C3/006) · CPC title

• F23C2900/07001

  Air swirling vanes incorporating fuel injectors · CPC title

• Y02E20/34

  Indirect CO2mitigation, i.e. by acting on non CO2directly related matters of the process, e.g. pre-heating or heat recovery · CPC title

• F23N5/003

  using detectors sensitive to combustion gas properties (F23N5/02, F23N5/18 - F23N5/26 take precedence) · CPC title

• F23R3/286

  having fuel-air premixing devices (F23R3/30 takes precedence) · CPC title