LUCA MAZZOTTA

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXVII


supervisor: Franco Rispoli
co-supervisor: Domenico Borello

Thesis title: Advancing NOx Emission Prediction for Hydrogen-Rich and Ammonia-Based Fuel Blends in Gas Turbine Burners

The global push toward decarbonization has catalysed research into alternative fuel sources for power generation. Among these, hydrogen (H2) and ammonia (NH3) are emerging as viable candidates for sustainable energy systems due to their high energy densities and carbon-neutral nature. However, their combustion characteristics, instabilities and significant nitrogen oxides (NOx) production, present challenges for practical application in industrial gas turbines. To date, the prediction of NOx emissions from the combustion of these alternative fuels remains a significant challenge that requires further analysis and resolution. The use of chemical kinetics models in conjunction with combustion models has been demonstrated to lack effectiveness and accuracy in validating flame morphology and predicting emissions when operating parameters such as equivalence ratio or hydrogen content in fuel mixture are varied, particularly at high pressures. This presents a significant challenge in the implementation of these fuels in industrial gas turbines. This work includes extensive experimental campaigns on ammonia-hydrogen, ammonia-methane and cracked ammonia (NH3/H2/N2) blends, focusing on the effects of ammonia fuel fraction, equivalence ratio and pressure on combustion stability and pollutant formation. In addition, the potential of chemiluminescence to develop non-intrusive sensors for the monitoring and control of turbulent ammonia–hydrogen flames is investigated using Machine learning-based methods, to refine diagnostic techniques for real-time NOx prediction. Based on the experimental data obtained, this thesis investigates Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodologies to predict NOx emissions in gas turbine burners using hydrogen and ammonia fuel mixtures. In particular, numerical methodologies, such as Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), hybrid CFD - Chemical Reactor Network (CRN) techniques and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), are explored to model flame behavior and emissions pathways. By combining experimental data, CFD modeling, and machine learning techniques, the study provides a comprehensive evaluation of ammonia and hydrogen combustion processes, particularly in swirl burners. It addresses critical aspects such as combustion fundamentals, flame morphology and dynamics, chemical kinetics and NOx formation pathways to achieve emission mitigation. Finally, this work also explores the thermoacoustic instabilities associated with the mixtures investigated. The results reveal useful insights by validating numerical models on experimental data analysing both laboratory-scale burners and industrial burners, highlighting optimal configurations to reduce NOx emissions while maintaining combustion efficiency.

Research products

11573/1731712 - 2025 - Emissions analyses of humidified cracked ammonia swirling flames
Davies, Jordan; Mashruk, Syed; Sato, Daisuke; Mazzotta, Luca; Pugh, Daniel; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: COMBUSTION AND FLAME (Elsevier Science Incorporated / NY Journals:Madison Square Station, PO Box 882:New York, NY 10159:(212)633-3730, EMAIL: usinfo-f@elsevier.com, INTERNET: http://www.elsevier.com, Fax: (212)633-3680) pp. 1-10 - issn: 0010-2180 - wos: WOS:001403670300001 (3) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85215066480 (3)

11573/1725117 - 2025 - Experimental and numerical investigation of NH3/H2/N2 combustion in a premixed/stratified swirl burner
Davies, Jordan; Mazzotta, Luca; Sato, Daisuke; Mashruk, Syed; Pugh, Daniel; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER (New York N.Y.: American Society of Mechanical Engineers,) pp. 1-9 - issn: 0742-4795 - wos: WOS:001365396300028 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-105001155353 (0)

11573/1733712 - 2025 - On the Impact of CFD Turbulence Models for Premixed NH3/H2 Combustion on Emissions and Flame Characteristics in a Swirl-Stabilized Burner
Mazzotta, Luca; Lamioni, Rachele; Agati, Giuliano; Evangelisti, Adriano; Rispoli, Franco; Valera-Medina, Agustin; Borello, Domenico - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: FLOW TURBULENCE AND COMBUSTION (Kluwer Academic Publishers:Journals Department, PO Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht Netherlands:011 31 78 6576050, EMAIL: frontoffice@wkap.nl, kluweronline@wkap.nl, INTERNET: http://www.kluwerlaw.com, Fax: 011 31 78 6576254) pp. - - issn: 1386-6184 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1730684 - 2025 - Assessing the potential of a chemiluminescence and machine learning-based method for the sensing of premixed ammonia–hydrogen–air turbulent flames
Mazzotta, Luca; Zhu, Xuren; Davies, Jordan; Sato, Daisuke; Borello, Domenico; Mashruk, Syed; Guiberti, Thibault F.; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY (Elsevier Science Limited:Oxford Fulfillment Center, PO Box 800, Kidlington Oxford OX5 1DX United Kingdom:011 44 1865 843000, 011 44 1865 843699, EMAIL: asianfo@elsevier.com, tcb@elsevier.co.UK, INTERNET: http://www.elsevier.com, http://www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsa/, Fax: 011 44 1865 843010) pp. 945-954 - issn: 0360-3199 - wos: WOS:001402802900001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85213232950 (1)

11573/1717093 - 2024 - Effects of Reynolds number and ammonia fraction on combustion characteristics of premixed ammonia-hydrogen-air swirling flames
Daisuke, Sato; Davies, Jordan; Mazzotta, Luca; Mashruk, Syed; Valera-Medina, Agustin; Kurose, Ryoichi - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMBUSTION INSTITUTE (Pittsburgh, Pa. : The Institute, c2000-) pp. - - issn: 1540-7489 - wos: WOS:001278372400001 (8) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85199276560 (10)

11573/1729392 - 2024 - Numerical prediction of cavitation for a horizontal axis tidal turbine
Evangelisti, Adriano; Agati, Giuliano; Borello, Domenico; Mazzotta, Luca; Capobianchi, Paolo; Venturini, Paolo - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: FLOW TURBULENCE AND COMBUSTION (Kluwer Academic Publishers:Journals Department, PO Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht Netherlands:011 31 78 6576050, EMAIL: frontoffice@wkap.nl, kluweronline@wkap.nl, INTERNET: http://www.kluwerlaw.com, Fax: 011 31 78 6576254) pp. 1-26 - issn: 1386-6184 - wos: WOS:001375768200001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85211501384 (0)

11573/1721313 - 2024 - Perspectives on NOx emissions and impacts from ammonia combustion processes
Mashruk, Syed; Shi, Hao; Mazzotta, Luca; Ustun, Cihat Emre; Aravind, B.; Meloni, Roberto; Alnasif, Ali; Boulet, Elena; Jankowski, Radoslaw; Yu, Chunkan; Alnajideen, Mohammad; Paykani, Amin; Maas, Ulrich; Slefarski, Rafal; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 01g Articolo di rassegna (Review)
paper: ENERGY & FUELS (Washington D.C.: American Chemical Society) pp. 19253-19292 - issn: 0887-0624 - wos: WOS:001327113900001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85205899812 (0)

11573/1708398 - 2024 - Modeling ammonia-hydrogen-air combustion and emission characteristics of a generic swirl burner
Mazzotta, Luca; Lamioni, Rachele; D'alessio, Francesco; Meloni, Roberto; Morris, Steven; Goktepe, Burak; Cerutti, Matteo; Romano, Christian; Creta, Francesco; Galletti, Chiara; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER (New York N.Y.: American Society of Mechanical Engineers,) pp. 1-11 - issn: 0742-4795 - wos: WOS:001283087500004 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85190515982 (0)

11573/1721316 - 2024 - On the effect of kinetic model on NOx emissions in premixed NH3-CH4 turbulent flames using LES-CRN methodology
Mazzotta, Luca; Meloni, Roberto; Babazzi, Giulia; Pucci, Egidio; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 3rd Symposium on Ammonia Energy (Shanghai; China)
book: Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Ammonia Energy - ()

11573/1715723 - 2024 - Numerical Investigation in a Gas Turbine Burner Operating with Hydrogen-Ammonia Blend using Large Eddy Simulation and LES-CRN Methodology
Mazzotta, Luca; Meloni, Roberto; Lamioni, Rachele; Romano, Christian - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 46th Meeting of The Italian Section of The Combustion Institute (Bari)
book: Proceedings of the 46th Meeting of the Italian Section of The Combustion Institute - (978-88-88104-29-4)

11573/1715728 - 2024 - Analysis of the NOx formation pathways in a partially premixed burner operated with pure hydrogen
Meloni, Roberto; Babazzi, Giulia; Mazzotta, Luca; Borello, Domenico - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 46th Meeting of The Italian Section of The Combustion Institute (Bari, Italy)
book: Proceedings of the 46th Meeting of the Italian Section of The Combustion Institute - (978-88-88104-29-4)

11573/1725111 - 2024 - Large eddy simulations for the prediction of fuel-bound NOx emissions: application to NH3 and NH3-CH4 blends at different operating conditions
Meloni, Roberto; Mazzotta, Luca; Pucci, Egidio; Morris, Steve; Goktepe, Burak; Mashruk, Syed; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: ASME Turbo Expo 2024 (London, United Kingdom)
book: Turbo Expo: Power for Land, Sea, and Air - Combustion, Fuels, and Emissions - (978-0-7918-8794-3)

11573/1717094 - 2024 - Ammonia blends for gas-turbines: Preliminary test and CFD-CRN modelling
Romano, Christian; Cerutti, Matteo; Babazzi, Giulia; Miris, Lorenzo; Lamioni, Rachele; Galletti, Chiara; Mazzotta, Luca; Borello, Domenico - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMBUSTION INSTITUTE (Pittsburgh, Pa. : The Institute, c2000-) pp. 1-7 - issn: 1540-7489 - wos: WOS:001281030300001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85199288079 (0)

11573/1692520 - 2023 - Cavitation assessment on a model scale tidal turbine
Evangelisti, Adriano; Agati, Giuliano; Borello, Domenico; Mazzotta, Luca; Venturini, Paolo - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 10th International symposium on turbulence, heat and mass transfer (Rome, Italy)
book: Proceedings of the 10th symposium on turbulence heat and mass transfer - (978-1-56700-534-9; 978-1-56700-535-6)

11573/1715981 - 2023 - Ammonia to help decarbonization in gas turbine
Lamioni, Rachele; Mazzotta, Luca; D'alessio, Francesco; Cerutti, Matteo; Romano, Christian; Creta, Francesco; Borello, Domenico; Galletti, Chiara - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
conference: 11th European Combustion Meeting 2023 (Rouen; France)
book: Proceedings of the 11th European Combustion Meeting 2023 - ()

11573/1692690 - 2023 - A comparative study of different turbulence models for premixed NH3/H2 combustion in a swirl-stabilized burner
Mazzotta, Luca; Agati, Giuliano; Lamioni, Rachele; Evangelisti, Adriano; Rispoli, Franco; Borello, Domenico - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 10th International Symposium on Turbulence, Heat and Mass Transfer, THMT 2023 (Rome, Italy)
book: Proceedings of the international symposium on turbulence, heat and mass transfer - (978-1-56700-534-9)

11573/1689832 - 2023 - Modelling Ammonia-Hydrogen-Air Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a Generic Swirl Burner
Mazzotta, Luca; D’Alessio, Francesco; Meloni, Roberto; Morris, Steve; Goktepe, Burak; Lamioni, Rachele; Cerutti, Matteo; Romano, Christian; Galletti, Chiara; Creta, Francesco; Borello, Domenico; Valera-Medina, Agustin - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: ASME Turbo Expo 2023: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
book: Ceramics and Ceramic Composites; Coal, Biomass, Hydrogen, and Alternative Fuels - (978-0-7918-8694-6)

11573/1658423 - 2022 - Analysis of the NOx emissions deriving from hydrogen/air combustion in a swirling non-premixed annular micro-combustor
Mazzotta, Luca; Di Gruttola, Francesca; Palone, Orlando; Gagliardi, Gabriele Guglielmo; Borello, Domenico - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: ASME Turbo Expo 2022: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
book: Coal, Biomass, Hydrogen, and Alternative Fuels; Controls, Diagnostics, and Instrumentation; Steam Turbine - (978-0-7918-8598-7)

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