Flame control, particularly at very lean conditions, is a critical requirement for external combustion power sources such as thermoelectric and thermophotovoltaic generators. The availability of in-situ produced hydrogen from JP-8 fuel reforming presents a potential supply of hydrogen at the application site, such as the battlefield, without adding a second fuel to the logistics system. This research investigates the use of small amounts of hydrogen co-fired with JP-8 for improved energy efficiency, operational flexibility and environmental protection. Numerical simulations were conducted in a 6 kW (thermal) swirling flow combustor under different conditions. The simulations use hydrogen and a single hydrocarbon surrogate for JP-8 with a 4-step reaction mechanism. It also examined the effect of using hydrogen-rich reformate containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases dual-fired with JP-8. Results showed that at lean conditions, dual firing of hydrogen or reformate with JP-8 provided improved fuel conversion, better flame stability and higher fuel burnout. Dual firing hydrogen-rich reformate and JP-8 led to increased burner capacity, reduced system size and weight requirements. However, dual firing with hydrogen provided little benefit to JP-8 combustion under stoichiometric or fuel rich conditions because they were limited by mixing rather than chemical kinetics. These results indicate that dual firing of hydrogen with JP-8 is a promising method for improving lean flame stability and burner control. This has the potential to enable small scale power applications with specific temperature requirements such as thermoelectric and thermophotovoltaic generators. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.