Emission Reduction of Fuel Staged Aircraft Engine Combustor Using an Additional Premixed Fuel Nozzle

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is conducting research and development on aircraft engine technologies to reduce environmental impact for the TechCLEAN project. As a part of the project, combustion technologies have been developed with an aggressive target that is an 80% reduction over the NOx threshold of the ICAO CAEP/4 standard. A staged fuel nozzle with a pilot mixer and a main mixer was developed and tested using a single-sector combustor under the target engine’s LTO cycle conditions with a rated output of 40 kN and an overall pressure ratio of 25.8. The test results showed a 77% reduction over the CAEP/4 NOx standard. A reduction in smoke was found under a higher thrust condition than the 30% MTO condition, and a reduction in CO emission was found under a lower thrust condition than the 85% MTO condition. In the present study, an additional fuel burner was designed and tested with the staged fuel nozzle in a single-sector combustor to control emissions. The test results show that the combustor enables an 82% reduction in NOx emissions relative to the ICAO CAEP/4 standard and a drastic reduction in smoke and CO emissions.