Brazil is the most advanced country in terms of technology, production and use of ethanol as fuel. Alcohol can be obtained from various forms of biomass, being sugarcane a current economic reality. The environmental benefits associated with the use of alcohol are enormous, as approximately 2.3 tons of CO2 are no longer emitted to the atmosphere for each ton of ethanol, without taking into account emissions of other gases such as SO2. Sugarcane is the second largest source of renewable energy in Brazil, with 12.6% of participation in the current energy matrix, considering the ethanol fuel and cogeneration of electricity from sugarcane bagasse.
The aim of this work is an experimental analysis of thermal performance/emissions of a 30 kW regenerative cycle gas turbine engine using ethanol as fuel. The tests were carried out in the laboratories of the Federal University of Itajubá – UNIFEI, Brazil, on steady state condition under different load levels, considering the properties of ethanol in compliance with Brazilian legislations.
The results shown that there were no significant changes in the thermal performance of the gas turbine engine and the emissions ware a slight increase in CO and a reduction in concentrations of NOx.
Performance and emission characteristics of micro gas turbine engine fuelled with bioethanol-diesel-biodiesel blends
