Prediction of Combustion Performance of Biodiesel in Gas Turbine Combustor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka Yadav ◽  
Nagendra P. Yadav

Abstract This paper focuses the computational fluid dynamics analysis inside the gas turbine combustor for the combustion of biodiesel and air mixture. The biodiesel (methyl soyate) is made from the vegetable oil (soybean oil). ANSYS fluent is used for Numerical simulation and model adapted Eddy dissipation concept for turbulence, discrete model, k-epsilon (standard), and the species transport. The model was validated and the combustion performance of biodiesel is predicted with an air-assist injector. The fuel spray is created by commercially available airblast atomizer in this study. The strength of recirculation increases with increased in equivalence ratio. The strong corner recirculation was observed at 0.75 equivalence ratio. The higher turbulence kinetic energy is found at the middle of the combustor. The temperature increases with the increase in the equivalence ratio in the flame stable region while it decreases with increases in the equivalence ratio. It was observed that an increase in the equivalence ratio, flame length increases. The profiles of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxides (NOx) emissions can be obtained at 15% atomizing airflow rates, while the total airflow rate kept constant. The NOx and CO emissions are effected mainly by the fuel-air mixing process that the fuel-air mixing process and atomization have the great impact on CO and NOx emissions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parneeth Lokini ◽  
Dinesh Kumar Roshan ◽  
Abhijit Kushari

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the influence of swirl number (S) and primary zone airflow rate on the temperature, emission indices of the pollutants, and combustion efficiency in an atmospheric pressure liquid-fueled gas turbine (GT) combustor, equipped with a swirling jet air blast atomizer and operated with Jet A1 fuel. Experiments were conducted at three primary zone air flow rates and three swirl numbers (0.49, 0.86, and 1.32). For all the cases, it was found that the NOx emissions were very low (< 2 g/kg of fuel). At all the swirl numbers, an increase in primary zone airflow led to a nonmonotonous variation in CO while minimally affecting the NOx emissions. However, increase in the swirl number generated relatively higher NOx and lower CO owing to higher temperature resulting from efficient combustion caused by a superior fuel–air mixing. Also, the unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC) was quite high at S = 0.49 because of the unmixedness of fuel and air, and zero at S = 0.86 and 1.32. The combustion efficiency was very low (around 60%) at S = 0.49 while almost 100% at S = 0.86 and 1.32. The study conducted demonstrates a significant dependence of emissions and GT performance on the swirl number governed by the convective time scales and the residence time of the combustible mixture in the combustion zone.


Author(s):  
Stephan Lellek ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer

With the transition of the power production markets towards renewable energy sources an increased demand for flexible, fossil based power production systems arises. Steep load gradients and a high range of flexibility make gas turbines a core technology in this ongoing change. In order to further increase this flexibility research on power augmentation of premixed gas turbine combustors is conducted at the Lehrstuhl für Thermodynamik, TU München. Water injection in gas turbine combustors allows for the simultaneous control of NOx emissions as well as the increase of the power output of the engine and has therefore been transferred to a premixed combustor at lab scale. So far stable operation of the system has been obtained for water-to-fuel ratios up to 2.25 at constant adiabatic flame temperatures. This paper focuses on the effects of water injection on pollutant formation in premixed gas turbine flames. In order to guarantee for high practical relevance experimental measurements are conducted at typical preheating temperatures and common gas turbine combustor residence times of about 20 ms. Spatially resolved and global species measurements are performed in an atmospheric single burner test rig for typical adiabatic flame temperatures between 1740 and 2086 K. Global measurements of NOx and CO emissions are shown for a wide range of equivalence ratios and variable water-to-fuel ratios. Cantera calculations are used to identify non-equilibrium processes in the measured data. To get a close insight into the emission formation processes in water injected flames local concentration measurements are used to calculate distributions of the reaction progress variable. Finally, to clarify the influence of spray quality on the composition of the exhaust gas a variation of the water droplet diameters is done. For rising water content at constant adiabatic flame temperature the NOx emissions can be held constant, whereas CO concentrations increase. On the contrary, both values decrease for measurements at constant equivalence ratio and reduced flame temperatures. Further analysis of the data shows the close dependency of CO concentration on the equivalence ratio, however, due to the water addition a shift of the CO curves can be detected. In the local measurements changes in the distribution of the reaction progress variable and an increase of the flame length were detected for water injected flames along with changes of the maximum as well as the averaged CO values. Finally, a strong influence of water droplet size on NOx and CO formation is shown for constant operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Stephan Lellek ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer

With the transition of the power production markets toward renewable energy sources, an increased demand for flexible, fossil-based power production systems arises. Steep load gradients and a high range of flexibility make gas turbines a core technology in this ongoing change. In order to further increase this flexibility research on power augmentation of premixed gas turbine combustors is conducted at the Lehrstuhl für Thermodynamik, TU München. Water injection in gas turbine combustors allows for the simultaneous control of NOx emissions as well as the increase of the power output of the engine and has therefore been transferred to a premixed combustor at lab scale. So far stable operation of the system has been obtained for water-to-fuel ratios up to 2.25 at constant adiabatic flame temperatures. This paper focuses on the effects of water injection on pollutant formation in premixed gas turbine flames. In order to guarantee for high practical relevance, experimental measurements are conducted at typical preheating temperatures and common gas turbine combustor residence times of about 20 ms. Spatially resolved and global species measurements are performed in an atmospheric single burner test rig for typical adiabatic flame temperatures between 1740 and 2086 K. Global measurements of NOx and CO emissions are shown for a wide range of equivalence ratios and variable water-to-fuel ratios. Cantera calculations are used to identify nonequilibrium processes in the measured data. To get a close insight into the emission formation processes in water-injected flames, local concentration measurements are used to calculate distributions of the reaction progress variable. Finally, to clarify the influence of spray quality on the composition of the exhaust gas, a variation of the water droplet diameters is done. For rising water content at constant adiabatic flame temperature, the NOx emissions can be held constant, whereas CO concentrations increase. On the contrary, both values decrease for measurements at constant equivalence ratio and reduced flame temperatures. Further analysis of the data shows the close dependency of CO concentration on the equivalence ratio; however, due to the water addition, a shift of the CO curves can be detected. In the local measurements, changes in the distribution of the reaction progress variable and an increase of the flame length were detected for water-injected flames along with changes of the maximum as well as the averaged CO values. Finally, a strong influence of water droplet size on NOx and CO formation is shown for constant operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Masato Hiramatsu ◽  
Yoshifumi Nakashima ◽  
Sadamasa Adachi ◽  
Yudai Yamasaki ◽  
Shigehiko Kaneko

One approach to achieving 99% combustion efficiency (C.E.) and 10 ppmV or lower NOx (at 15%O2) in a micro gas turbine (MGT) combustor fueled by biomass gas at a variety of operating conditions is with the use of flameless combustion (FLC). This paper compares experimentally obtained results and CHEMKIN analysis conducted for the developed combustor. As a result, increase the number of stage of FLC combustion enlarges the MGT operation range with low-NOx emissions and high-C.E. The composition of fuel has a small effect on the characteristics of ignition in FLC. In addition, NOx in the engine exhaust is reduced by higher levels of CO2 in the fuel.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Schwärzle ◽  
Thomas O. Monz ◽  
Andreas Huber ◽  
Manfred Aigner

Jet-stabilized combustion is a promising technology for fuel flexible, reliable, highly efficient combustion systems. The aim of this work is a reduction of NOx emissions of a previously published two-stage micro gas turbine (MGT) combustor (Zanger et al., 2015, “Experimental Investigation of the Combustion Characteristics of a Double-Staged FLOX-Based Combustor on an Atmospheric and a Micro Gas Turbine Test Rig,” ASME Paper No. GT2015-42313 and Schwärzle et al., 2016, “Detailed Examination of Two-Stage Micro Gas Turbine Combustor,” ASME Paper No. GT2016-57730), where the pilot stage (PS) of the combustor was identified as the main contributor to NOx emissions. The geometry optimization was carried out regarding the shape of the pilot dome and the interface between PS and main stage (MS) in order to prevent the formation of high-temperature recirculation zones. Both stages have been run separately to allow a detailed understanding of the flame stabilization within the combustor, its range of stable combustion, the interaction between both stages, and the influence of the modified geometry. All experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure and an air preheat temperature of 650  °C. The flame was analyzed in terms of shape, length, and lift-off height, using OH* chemiluminescence (OH-CL) images. Emission measurements for NOx, CO, and unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) emissions were carried out. At a global air number of λ = 2, a fuel split variation was carried out from 0 (only PS) to 1 (only MS). The modification of the geometry leads to a decrease in NOx and CO emissions throughout the fuel split variation in comparison with the previous design. Regarding CO emissions, the PS operations are beneficial for a fuel split above 0.8. The local maximum in NOx emissions observed for the previous combustor design at a fuel split of 0.78 was not apparent for the modified design. NOx emissions were increasing, when the local air number of the PS was below the global air number. In order to evaluate the influence of the modified design on the flow field and identify the origin of the emission reduction compared to the previous design, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations were carried out for both geometries at fuel splits of 0.93 and 0.78, respectively, using the DLR (German Aerospace Center) in-house code turbulent heat release extension of the tau code (theta) with the k–ω shear stress transport turbulence model and the DRM22 (Kazakov and Frenklach, 1995, “DRM22,” University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, accessed Sept. 21, 2017, http://www.me.berkeley.edu/drm/) detailed reaction mechanism. The numerical results showed a strong influence of the recirculation zones on the PS reaction zone.


Author(s):  
Oanh Nguyen ◽  
Scott Samuelsen

In view of increasingly stringent NOx emissions regulations on stationary gas turbines, lean combustion offers an attractive option to reduce reaction temperatures and thereby decrease NOx production. Under lean operation, however, the reaction is vulnerable to blowout. It is herein postulated that pilot hydrogen dopant injection, discretely located, can enhance the lean blowout performance without sacrificing overall performance. The present study addresses this hypothesis in a research combustor assembly, operated at atmospheric pressure, and fired on natural gas using rapid mixing injection, typical of commercial units. Five hydrogen injector scenarios are investigated. The results show that (1) pilot hydrogen dopant injection, discretely located, leads to improved lean blowout performance and (2) the location of discrete injection has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the doping strategy.


Author(s):  
K. O. Smith ◽  
A. Fahme

Three subscale, cylindrical combustors were rig tested on natural gas at typical industrial gas turbine operating conditions. The intent of the testing was to determine the effect of combustor liner cooling on NOx and CO emissions. In order of decreasing liner cooling, a metal louvre-cooled combustor, a metal effusion-cooled combustor, and a backside-cooled ceramic (CFCC) combustor were evaluated. The three combustors were tested using the same lean-premixed fuel injector. Testing showed that reduced liner cooling produced lower CO emissions as reaction quenching near the liner wall was reduced. A reduction in CO emissions allows a reoptimization of the combustor air flow distribution to yield lower NOx emissions.


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