Measures to reduce nitrogen oxides (NO_x) formation in industrial combustion processes often require up-scaling through pilot-scale facilities prior to being implemented in commercial scale, and scaling is therefore an important aspect of achieving lower NO_x emissions. The current paper is a combined experimental and modelling study that aims to expand the understanding of constant velocity scaling for industrial jet flames applying high amounts of excess air. These types of flames are found in e.g., rotary kilns for production of iron ore pellets. The results show that, even if the combustion settings, velocity, and temperature profiles are correctly scaled, the concentration of oxygen experienced by the fuel during char combustion will scale differently. As the NO formation from the char combustion is important in these flames, the differences induced by the scaling has important impacts on the efficiencies of the applied primary measures. Increasing the rate of char combustion (to increase the Damköhler number), by using, for example, smaller-sized particles, in the pilot-scale is recommended to improve scaling.

Soot is an important component for heat transfer in combustion processes. However, it is also a harmful pollutant for humans, and strict emissions legislation motivates research on how to control soot formation and release. The formation of soot is known to be triggered by high temperature and high pressure during combustion, and it is also strongly influenced by the local stoichiometry. The current study investigates how the formation of soot is affected by increasing the oxygen concentration in the oxidizer, since this affects both the temperature profile and partial pressures of reactants. The oxygen-to-fuel ratio is kept constant, i.e., the total flow rate of the oxidizer decreases with increasing oxygen concentration. Propane is combusted (80 kW_th) while applying oxygen-enriched air, and in-flame measurements of the temperature and gas concentrations are performed and combined with available soot measurements. The results show that increasing the oxygen concentration in the oxidizer from 21% to 27% slightly increases soot formation, due to higher temperatures or the lower momentum of the oxidizer. At 30% oxygen, however, soot formation increases by orders of magnitude. Detailed reaction modeling is performed and the increase in soot formation is captured by the model. Both the soot inception rates and surface growth rates are significantly increased by the changes in combustion conditions, with the increase in soot inception being the most important. Under atmospheric conditions, there is a distinct threshold for soot formation at around 1200 °C for equivalence ratios >3. The increase in temperature, and the slower mixing that results from the lower momentum of the oxidizer, have the potential to push the combustion conditions over this threshold when the oxygen concentration is increased.