Emergence of Recuperated Gas Turbines for Power Generation

Author(s):  
Colin F. McDonald

In the emerging deployment of microturbines (25–75Kw), a recuperator is mandatory to achieve thermal efficiencies of 30 percent and higher, this being important if they are to successfully penentrate the market currently dominated by Diesel generator sets. This will be the first application of gas turbines for electrical power generation, where recuperators will be used in significant quantities. The experience gained with these machines will give users’ confidence that recuperated engines will meet performance and reliability goals. The latter point is particularly important, since recuperated gas turbines have not been widely deployed for power generation, and early variants were a disappointment. Recuperator technology transfer to larger engines will see the introduction of advanced heat exchanged industrial gas turbines for power generation in the 3–15 Mw range. After many decades of development, existing recuperators of both primary surface and plate-fin types, have demonstrated acceptable thermal performance and integrity in the cyclic gas turbine environment, but their capital costs are high. A near-term challenge to recuperator design and manufacturing engineers is to establish lower cost metallic heat exchangers that can be manufactured using high volume production methods. A longer term goal will be the development and utilization of a ceramic recuperator, since this is the key component to realize the full performance potential of very small and medium size gas turbines.

Author(s):  
Alexander Lifson ◽  
Anthony J. Smalley ◽  
George H. Quentin ◽  
Joseph P. Zanyk

This paper describes existing, developing, and needed methods for detection, identification, and diagnosis of problems in combustion turbines. The use of combustion turbines for electrical power generation is growing, and advanced models of large industrial turbines are now starting to enter service. In view of the harsh operating conditions and severe service to which these new turbines will be exposed, this paper evaluates sensors and signal analysis methods to detect and diagnose the problems which may surface in operation. Generic problems which have been observed in combustion turbine installations in the recent past are identified, and methods for detecting these problems, quantifying them, and isolating their causes are analyzed.


Author(s):  
Michael B. Boyns ◽  
Rajeshri Patel

Dry low NOX combustion technology has been successfully applied to the EGT Tornado and Tempest industrial gas turbines. This lean-premix technology has been based on that being employed in the EGT Typhoon gas turbine, as reported by Norster & De Pietro (1996) but with a number of modifications to suit the individual engines. The Tornado is a 6.1 MWe machine designed in the late 1970’s for power generation and mechanical drive applications. The worldwide emissions legislation of recent years has provided the requirement to reduce NOX emissions in the exhaust, both for new machines and for those already in operation. Hence a system suitable for retrofitting as well as new production was required. The Tornado utilises similar burners to the Typhoon but with different combustion chambers and a different centre casing from the standard Tornado. Due to the differing cycle conditions, a different reaction zone stoichiometry has been used. A short rig test program followed by engine testing have achieved NOX emissions at base load significantly lower than the initial program target of 42 ppmv and led to the program target being revised to 25 ppmv. The Tempest, launched into the market in 1995 produces 7.49 MWe in single shaft configuration and is aimed at the electrical power generation market. To comply with current emissions legislation, a DLN system has been developed. The Tempest is a 25% scale up of the Typhoon but its mechanical design incorporates a simplified main and pilot burner arrangement and a fully fabricated combustor. At base load, the Tempest operates at a higher turbine entry temperature than the Typhoon but has been designed such that the equivalence ratio in the reaction zone is slightly lower. A comprehensive test programme has demonstrated hardware which significantly improves upon the target emissions limit of 25 ppmv NOX.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Ancona ◽  
M. Bianchi ◽  
L. Branchini ◽  
A. De Pascale ◽  
F. Melino ◽  
...  

Abstract Gas turbines are often employed in the industrial field, especially for remote generation, typically required by oil and gas production and transport facilities. The huge amount of discharged heat could be profitably recovered in bottoming cycles, producing electric power to help satisfying the onerous on-site energy demand. The present work aims at systematically evaluating thermodynamic performance of ORC and supercritical CO2 energy systems as bottomer cycles of different small/medium size industrial gas turbine models, with different power rating. The Thermoflex software, providing the GT PRO gas turbine library, has been used to model the machines performance. ORC and CO2 systems specifics have been chosen in line with industrial products, experience and technological limits. In the case of pure electric production, the results highlight that the ORC configuration shows the highest plant net electric efficiency. The average increment in the overall net electric efficiency is promising for both the configurations (7 and 11 percentage points, respectively if considering supercritical CO2 or ORC as bottoming solution). Concerning the cogenerative performance, the CO2 system exhibits at the same time higher electric efficiency and thermal efficiency, if compared to ORC system, being equal the installed topper gas turbine model. The ORC scarce performance is due to the high condensing pressure, imposed by the temperature required by the thermal user. CO2 configuration presents instead very good cogenerative performance with thermal efficiency comprehended between 35 % and 46 % and the PES value range between 10 % and 22 %. Finally, analyzing the relationship between capital cost and components size, it is estimated that the ORC configuration could introduce an economical saving with respect to the CO2 configuration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (06) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
Lee S. Langston

This article discusses various fields where gas turbines can play a vital role. Building engines for commercial jetliners is the largest market segment for the gas turbine industry; however, it is far from being the only one. One 2015 military gas turbine program of note was the announcement of an U.S. Air Force competition for an innovative design of a small turbine engine, suitable for a medium-size drone aircraft. The electrical power gas turbine market experienced a sharp boom and bust from 2000 to 2002 because of the deregulation of many electric utilities. Since then, however, the electric power gas turbine market has shown a steady increase, right up to present times. Coal-fired plants now supply less than 5 percent of the electrical load, having been largely replaced by new natural gas-fired gas turbine power plants. Working in tandem with renewable energy power facilities, the new fleet of gas turbines is expected to provide reliable, on-demand electrical power at a reasonable cost.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. K4MD26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyfettin C. Gülen

AbstractThis article evaluates the improvement in gas turbine combined cycle power plant efficiency and output via pressure gain combustion (PGC). Ideal and real cycle calculations are provided for a rigorous assessment of PGC variants (e.g., detonation and deflagration) in a realistic power plant framework with advanced heavy-duty industrial gas turbines. It is shown that PGC is the single-most potent knob available to the designers for a quantum leap in combined cycle performance.


Author(s):  
Tagir R. Nigmatulin ◽  
Vladimir E. Mikhailov

Russian power generation, oil and gas businesses are rapidly growing. Installation of new industrial gas turbines is booming to fulfill the demand from economic growth. Russia is a unique country from the annual temperature variation point of view. Some regions may reach up to 100C. One of the biggest challenges for world producers of gas turbines in Russia is the ability to operate products at power plants during cold winters, when ambient temperature might be −60C for a couple of weeks in a row. The reliability and availability of the equipment during the cold season is very critical. Design of inlet systems and filter houses for the Russian market, specifically for northern regions, has a lot of specifics and engineering challenges. Joint Stock Company CKTI is the biggest Russian supplier of air intake systems for industrial gas turbines and axial-flow compressors. In 1969 this enterprise designed and installed the first inlet for the power plant Dagskaya GRES (State Regional Electric Power Plant) with the first 100MW gas-turbine which was designed and manufactured by LMZ. Since the late 1960s CKTI has designed and manufactured inlet systems for the world market and been the main supplier for the Russian market. During the last two years CKTI has designed inlet systems for a broad variety of gas turbine engines ranging from 24MW up to 110MW turbines which are used for power generation and as a mechanical drive for the oil and gas industry. CKTI inlet systems with filtering devices or houses are successfully used in different climate zones including the world’s coldest city Yakutsk and hot Nigeria. CKTI has established CTQs (Critical to quality) and requirements for industrial gas turbine inlet systems which will be installed in Russia in different climate zones for all types of energy installations. The last NPI project of the inlet system, including a nonstandard layout, was done for a small gas-turbine engine which is installed on a railway cart. This arrangement is designed to clean railway lines with the exhaust jet in a quarry during the winter. The design of the inlet system with efficient multistage compressor extraction for deicing, dust and snow resistance has an interesting solution. The detailed description of challenges, weather requirements, calculations, losses, and design methodologies to qualify the system for tough requirements, are described in the paper.


Author(s):  
A. Franzoni ◽  
L. Magistri ◽  
O. Tarnowsky ◽  
A. F. Massardo

This paper investigates options for highly efficient SOFC hybrid systems of different sizes. For this purpose different models of pressurised SOFC hybrids systems have been developed in the framework of the European Project “LARGE SOFC - Towards a Large SOFC Power Plant”. This project, coordinated by VTT Finland, counts numerous industrial partners such as Wartsila, Topsoe and Rolls-Royce FCS ltd. Starting from the RRFCS Hybrid System [1], considered as the reference case, several plant modifications have been investigated in order to improve the thermodynamic efficiency. The main options considered are (i) the integration of a recuperated micro gas turbine and (ii) the replacement of the cathodic ejector with a blower. The plant layouts are analysed in order to define the optimum solution in terms of operating parameters and thermodynamic performances. The study of a large size power plant (around 110 MWe) fed by coal and incorporated with SOFC hybrid systems is also conducted. The aim of this study is to analyse the sustainability of an Integrated Gasification Hybrid System from the thermodynamic and economic point of view in the frame of future large sized power generation. A complete thermoeconomic analysis of the most promising plants is carried out, taking into account variable and capital costs of the systems. The designed systems are compared from the thermodynamic and the thermoeconomic point of view with some of the common technologies used for distributed generation (gas turbines and reciprocating engines) and large size power generation (combined cycles and IGCC). The tool used for this analysis is WTEMP software, developed by the University of Genoa (DIMSET-TPG) [2], able to carry out a detailed thermodynamic and thermoeconomic analysis of the whole plants.


Author(s):  
Septimus van der Linden ◽  
Mario Romero

An advanced patented process [1] for generating power from waste heat sources can be put to use in Industrial operations where much of the heat is wasted and going up the stack. This waste heat can be efficiently recovered to generate electrical power. Benefits include: use of waste industrial process heat as a fuel source that, in most cases, has represented nothing more than wasted thermal pollution for decades, stable and predictable generation capability on a 24 × 7 basis. This means that as an efficiency improvement resource, unlike wind and solar, the facility continues to generate clean reliable power. One of the many advantages of generating power from waste heat is the advantage for distributed generation; by producing power closer to its ultimate use, it thereby reduces transmission line congestion and losses, in addition, distributed generation eliminates the 4% to 8% power losses due to transmission and distribution associated with central generation. Beneficial applications of heat recovery power generation can be found in numerous industries (e.g. steel, glass, cement, lime, pulp and paper, refining, electric utilities and petrochemicals), Power Generation (CHP, MSW, biomass, biofuel, traditional fuels, Gasifiers, diesel engines) and Natural Gas (pipeline compression stations, processing plants). This presentation will cover the WOW Energy technology Organic Rankine Cascading Closed Loop Cycle — CCLC, as well as provide case studies in power generation using Internal Combustion engines and Gas Turbines on pipelines, where 20% to 40% respectively additional electricity power is recovered. This is achieved without using additional fuel, and therefore improving the fuel use efficiency and resulting lower carbon footprint. The economic analysis and capital recovery payback period based on varying Utility rates will be explained as well as the potential Tax credits, Emission credits and other incentives that are often available. Further developments and Pilot plant results on fossil fired plant flue gas emissions reductions will be reported to illustrate the full potential of the WOW Energy CCLC system focusing on increasing efficiency and reducing emissions.


Author(s):  
Meng Hee Lim ◽  
Salman Leong ◽  
Kar Hoou Hui

This paper presents a case study in managing the dilemma of whether to resume or stop the operation of a power generation gas turbine with suspected blade faults. Vibration analysis is undertaken on the vibration signal of the gas turbine, to obtain an insight into the health condition of the blades before any decision is made on the operation of the machine. Statistical analysis is applied to study the characteristics of the highly unstable blade pass frequency (BPF) of the gas turbine and to establish the baseline data used for blade fault assessment and diagnosis. Based on the excessive increase observed on specific BPF amplitudes in comparison to the statistical baseline data, rubbing at the compressor blade is suspected. An immediate overhaul is therefore warranted, and the results from the inspection of the machine confirm the occurrence of severe rubbing at the compressor blades and labyrinth glands of the gas turbine. In conclusion, statistical analysis of BPF amplitude is found to be a viable tool for blade fault diagnosis in industrial gas turbines.


Author(s):  
J. Parente ◽  
A. Traverso ◽  
A. F. Massardo

Part A of this paper demonstrated that the HAT cycle, when applied to small-size gas turbines, can significantly enhance the efficiency and specific work of simple and recuperated cycles without the drastic changes to plant layout necessary in medium- and large-size plants. In this part B a complete thermoeconomic analysis is performed for microturbines operating in a Humid Air cycle. The capital cost and internal rate of return for both new machines and existing microturbines working in an mHAT-optimised cycle are presented and analysed. Three different scenarios are considered. The first scenario reflects a distributed electrical power generation application where cogeneration is not taken into account. Instead, the other two scenarios deal with CHP civil applications for different heat demands. The thermoeconomic results of the integrated mHAT cycle, based on a preliminary design of the saturator, demonstrate that microturbine performance can be greatly enhanced, while specific capital costs, in some cases, can be reduced up to 14%, without significant increase in layout complexity. Moreover, thanks to its operational flexibility (able to operate in dry and wet cycles), the mHAT is financially attractive for distributed power and heat generation (micro-cogeneration), particularly when heat demand is commutated in short period.


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