Ignition delay time and laminar flame speed measurements of ammonia blended with dimethyl ether: a promising low carbon fuel blend

Ammonia (NH₃) has recently received much attention as a promising future fuel for mobility and power generation. The use of ammonia as a fueling vector can help curb global warming by cutting CO₂ emissions because it is a carbon-free fuel and a hydrogen carrier with a high percentage of hydrogen atoms per unit volume. Liquid ammonia contains a higher volumetric density of hydrogen than liquid hydrogen. The low reactivity of ammonia, however, hinders its direct usage as a combustible fuel. One feasible way to boost the reactivity of ammonia is to target a dual-fuel system comprising of ammonia and a suitable combustion promoter. In this work, combustion properties of ammonia were investigated by blending it with various proportions of dimethyl ether (DME) using a rapid compression machine (RCM) and a constant volume spherical reactor (CVSR) over a wide range of experimental conditions. DME is a highly reactive fuel that may be produced in a sustainable carbon cycle with a net zero-carbon emission. Ignition delay times (IDTs) of NH₃/DME blends were measured over a temperature (T) range of 649–950 K, pressures (P) of 20 and 40 bar, equivalence ratios (Φ) of 0.5 and 1 for a range of DME mole fractions (χ_DME) of 0.05–0.5 in the blends. In addition, the laminar burning velocities of NH₃/DME blends were measured at P = 1, 3 and 5 bar, Φ = 0.8–1.3 and T = 300 K for χ_DME ranging from 0.18 to 0.47. Our results suggest that DME is a good ignition promoter, resulting in a significant shortening of IDTs and an increase of flame speeds of NH₃. A detailed chemical model has been developed and validated against the experimental data. Overall, our kinetic model offered reasonable predictive capabilities capturing the experimental trends over a wide range of conditions. In the worst-case scenario, our model underpredicted IDTs by a factor of ∼2.5 while overpredicting laminar flame speed by ∼20%.