Assessment of the Operational Performance of Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic-Paraffinic Kerosene in a T63 Gas Turbine Compared to Conventional Jet A-1 Fuel

Author(s):  
Nigel Bester ◽  
Andy Yates

The performance implications of operating on Synthetic-Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) were investigated using a RR-Allison T63-A-700 Model 250-C18 B gas turbine and compared to conventional Jet A-1. The SPK was aromatic–free and possessed a greater hydrogen/carbon ratio than petroleum derived Jet A-1. The variation in aromatic content had several implications with respect to soot and NOx emissions. Reduced aromatics also implied a reduction in the radiative heat transfer to the combustor liner. A simple model was used to explore the effect of H/C ratio on the adiabatic flame temperature, the combustor exit temperature and the engine efficiency via the impact on the gas properties and these were compared to the experimental data. It was found that operation with SPK changed directionally toward improving energy extraction via a turbine and an overall efficiency gain of about 1.2% was attained with operation on SPK through increased combustion efficiency, a reduction in liner pressure loss and an improvement in the combustion products properties. A modified combustion liner was fitted to enable the thermal loading on the combustor liner to be investigated and the expected trend with the SPK fuel was confirmed and quantified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Romano ◽  
Roberto Meloni ◽  
Giovanni Riccio ◽  
Pier Carlo Nassini ◽  
Antonio Andreini

Abstract This paper addresses the impact of natural gas composition on both the operability and emissions of lean premixed gas turbine combustion system. This is an issue of growing interest due to the challenge for gas turbine manufacturers in developing fuel-flexible combustors capable of operating with variable fuel gases while producing very low emissions at the same time. Natural gas contains primarily methane (CH4) but also notable quantities of higher order hydrocarbons such as ethane (C2H6) can also be present. A deep understanding of natural gas combustion is important to obtain the highest combustion efficiency with minimal environmental impact. For this purpose, Large Eddy Simulations of an annular combustor sector equipped with a partially premixed burner are carried out for two different natural gas compositions with and without including the effect of flame strain rate and heat loss resulting in a more adequate description of flame shape, thermal field, and extinction phenomena. Promising results, in terms of NOx, compared against available experimental data, are obtained including these effects on the flame brush modeling, enhancing the fuel-dependency under nonadiabatic condition.



Author(s):  
G. J. Sturgess

The paper deals with a small but important part of the overall gas turbine engine combustion system and continues earlier published work on turbulence effects in film cooling to cover the case of film turbulence. Film cooling of the gas turbine combustor liner imposes certain geometric limitations on the coolant injection device. The impact of practical film injection geometry on the cooling is one of increased rates of film decay when compared to the performance from idealized injection geometries at similar injection conditions. It is important to combustor durability and life estimation to be able to predict accurately the performance obtainable from a given practical slot. The coolant film is modeled as three distinct regions, and the effects of injection slot geometry on the development of each region are described in terms of film turbulence intensity and initial circumferential non-uniformity of the injected coolant. The concept of the well-designed slot is introduced and film effectiveness is shown to be dependent on it. Only slots which can be described as well-designed are of interest in practical equipment design. A prediction procedure is provided for well-designed slots which describes growth of the film downstream of the first of the three film regions. Comparisons of predictions with measured data are made for several very different well-designed slots over a relatively wide range of injection conditions, and good agreement is shown.



Author(s):  
Carroll D. Porter

A valveless combustor has been developed which has been tested at one to three atmospheres of pressure. It discharged combustion products at practical turbine-inlet temperatures and at a total pressure above that of the inlet. Developmental problems encountered and results are discussed. The smooth combustor cycle, a phased system of combustor tubes and pulsation traps, achieves steady flow at the inlet and outlet of the combustor system to preserve the high efficiency of today’s turbines and compressors. The combustor will soon be tested on a gas-turbine compressor to verify efficiency gain estimates.



1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 524-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Sturgess

The paper deals with a small but important part of the overall gas turbine engine combustion system and continues earlier published work on turbulence effects in film cooling to cover the case of film turbulence. Film cooling of the gas turbine combustor liner imposes certain geometric limitations on the coolant injection device. The impact of practical film injection geometry on the cooling is one of increased rates of film decay when compared to the performance from idealized injection geometries at similar injection conditions. It is important to combustor durability and life estimation to be able to predict accurately the performance obtainable from a given practical slot. The coolant film is modeled as three distinct regions, and the effects of injection slot geometry on the development of each region are described in terms of film turbulence intensity and initial circumferential non-uniformity of the injected coolant. The concept of the well-designed slot is introduced and film effectiveness is shown to be dependent on it. Only slots which can be described as well-designed are of interest in practical equipment design. A prediction procedure is provided for well-designed slots which describes growth of the film downstream of the first of the three film regions. Comparisons of predictions with measured data are made for several very different well-designed slots over a relatively wide range of injection conditions, and good agreement is shown.



Author(s):  
Y. G. Li ◽  
R. L. Hales

One of the remedies to reduce the major emissions production of nitric oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) from conventional gas turbine engine combustors at both high and low operating conditions without losing its performance and stability is to use variable geometry combustors. This type of combustor configuration provides the possibility of dynamically controlling the airflow distribution of the combustor based on its operating conditions and therefore controlling the combustion in certain lean burn conditions. Two control schemes are described and analyzed in this paper: both are based on airflow control with variable geometry, the second including fuel staging. A model two-spool turbofan engine is chosen in this study to test the effectiveness of the variable geometry combustor and control schemes. The steady and dynamic performance of the turbofan engine is simulated and analyzed using an engine transient performance analysis code implemented with the variable geometry combustor. Empirical correlations for NOx, CO and UHC are used for the estimation of emissions. Some conclusions are obtained from this study: • With variable geometry combustors significant reduction of NOx emissions at high operating conditions and CO and UHC at low operating condition is possible; • Combustion efficiency and stability can be improved at low operating conditions, which is symbolized by the higher flame temperature in the variable geometry combustor; • The introduced correlation between non-dimensional fuel flow rate and air flow ratio to the primary zone is effective and simple in the control of flame temperature; • Circumferential fuel staging can reduce the range of air splitter movement in most of the operating conditions from idle to maximum power and have the great potential to reduce the inlet distortion to the combustor and improve the combustion efficiency; • During transient processes, the maximum moving rate of the hydraulic driven system may delay the air splitter movement but this effect on engine combustor performance is not significant.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Riley Creer ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Abstract The gas turbine combustion process reaches gas temperatures that exceed the melting temperature of the combustor liner materials. Cooling the liner is critical to combustor durability and is often accomplished with double-walled liners that contain both impingement and effusion holes. The liner cooling is complicated with the interruption of the effusion cooling by large dilution jets that facilitate the combustion process. Given the presence of the dilution jets, it is important to understand the effect that the dilution jet has on the opposing wall in respect to the effusion film. This research includes measurements of the local static pressure distribution for a range of dilution jet momentum flux ratios to investigate the impact that the opposing dilution jet has on the effusion film. The interactions with the effusion cooling were also evaluated by measuring the overall cooling effectiveness across the panel. Measurements show that the opposing dilution jets did impact the liner at dilution jet momentum flux ratios that were greater than 20. The impacts at high momentum flux ratios were indicated through increased local static pressures measured on the surface of the combustor liner. Furthermore, the dilution touchdown decreased the overall cooling effectiveness of the effusion cooling. Results also indicated that the opposing dilution jets changed position on the liner as the dilution jet momentum flux ratio changes.



Author(s):  
Alexandr A. Belokon ◽  
Konstantin M. Khritov ◽  
Lev A. Klyachko ◽  
Sergey A. Tschepin ◽  
Vladimir M. Zakharov ◽  
...  

Diffusion flame combustor test results are presented for methane firing in steam/air mixtures containing up to 20% steam. The tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure with combustor inlet temperatures up to 700K. Steam and air were fully premixed before combustion. Combustion efficiency and NOX levels were measured. The well-known Θ loading parameter was modified by replacing the combustor inlet temperature with the flame temperature. The flame temperature was defined as the stoichiometric temperature of the steam/air mixture. The combustion efficiency obtained with and without steam correlated nicely with this modified loading parameter. Calculated NOX levels agreed well with the measurements, where NOX was predicted using the flamelet technique. This approach makes it possible to predict combustor efficiencies with steam by using combustor performance data taken without steam. Preliminary design analyses of gas turbine cycles with significant steam addition can now easily include the impact of the steam on combustor performance.



Author(s):  
Johannes Berger

AbstractDecarbonising the energy grid through renewable energy requires a grid firming technology to harmonize supply and demand. Hydrogen-fired gas turbine power plants offer a closed loop by burning green hydrogen produced with excess power from renewable energy. Conventional dry low NOx (DLN) combustors have been optimized for strict emission limits. A higher flame temperature of hydrogen drives higher NOx emissions and faster flame speed alters the combustion behavior significantly. Micromix combustion offers potential for low NOx emissions and optimized conditions for hydrogen combustion. Many small channels, so-called airgates, accelerate the airflow followed by a jet-in-crossflow injection of hydrogen. This leads to short-diffusion flames following the principle of maximized mixing intensity and minimized mixing scales. This paper shows the challenges and the potential of an economical micromix application for an aero-derivative industrial gas turbine with a high-pressure ratio. A technology transfer based on the micromix combustion research in the ENABLEH2 project is carried out. The driving parameter for ground use adaption is an increased fuel orifice diameter from 0.3 mm to 1.0 mm to reduce cost and complexity. Increasing the fuel supply mass flow leads to larger flames and higher emissions. The impact was studied through RANS simulation and trends for key design parameters were shown. Increased velocity in the airgates leads to a higher pressure drop and reduced emissions through faster mixing. Altering the penetration depth shows potential for emission reduction without compromising on pressure loss. Two improved designs are found, and their performance is discussed.



Author(s):  
Bassam S. Mohammad ◽  
Brian Volk ◽  
Keith McManus

Abstract It is a common practice to relate emissions performance of Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion systems to the flame temperature that is estimated from the mass flows of air and fuel flowing through the premixer. In many combustion systems, the exit temperature (or turbine nozzle inlet temperature) is quite low and is not a good parameter for estimating combustion emissions. The difference between the combustion flame temperature and exit temperature is mainly due to secondary air dilution. To our knowledge there are no detailed published data that quantify the impact of this temperature difference on combustion emissions. The target of this study is to quantify the impact of secondary air variation on emissions, both globally and locally. High pressure experiments are conducted at H class gas turbine operating conditions using a DLE combustion system. In the context of this DLE system, secondary air refers to cooling and leakage flows because direct air dilution of the combustion gasses is not necessary. This is because the flame stabilized downstream of the premixer is well mixed and fuel-lean. With NOx requirements moving toward single digit (ppm) levels, it becomes essential to accurately quantify the impact of reducing the secondary air percentage on emissions performance. In addition to the need to carefully study the impact of local interaction of the secondary air with the flame. The combustion system is configured with two independently controlled mixers along with a variable secondary air circuit that can change the secondary air fraction from 14 to 8%. Multiple emissions rakes are used at the combustor exit to delineate the interaction and relate it to the flame structure. The system is configured to enable sampling from individual rakes to study local emissions and the rakes can be ganged together to measure the bulk-averaged combustion emissions. This research provides a quantification of the improvement of the NOx margin with a decrease in the secondary air percentage. The study shows that the increase in margin is not a simple re-estimate of the combustor emissions using the NOx design curve due to flame quenching effects. The results also show that the secondary air can be used to improve the NOx emissions via controlling the interaction with the primary flame. The impact is quantified in terms of emissions, acoustics and metal temperatures.



Author(s):  
Bassam S. Mohammad ◽  
Keith McManus ◽  
Anthony Brand ◽  
Ahmed M. Elkady ◽  
Daniel Cuppoletti

Abstract The current research provides the impact of hydrogen enrichment on gas turbine combustion characteristics. The uniqueness of this study is it isolates the hydrogen effects while minimizing the impact of other parameters that are known to influence combustion characteristics. Experiments are carried out under high operating pressure and a wide range of firing temperatures that extend from the Lean Blow Out (LBO) limit to beyond J class firing temperature. Aerodynamic effects are isolated by using a perforated plate burner to provide a simple flame structure. The study is conducted under perfectly premixed conditions to exclude the mixing effects from the problem under investigation. Air flow, residence time, pressure and temperature are all held constant to enable back to back comparison. Hydrogen enrichment is varied from 0 to 25 percent by volume while holding the combustor exit temperature constant. No cooling air or effusion air is used in the combustion zone to ensure that there is no impact on the problem under investigation and to focus the study on kinetics effects and flame shape variation. NOx, CO emissions, LBO limits as well as flame luminosity are reported. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are measured at the combustor exit and used to ensure test integrity and for confirmation of the exit temperature. A reactor network model is used to mimic the experimental work and study sensitivity. The effective residence time in the model is varied slightly to mimic the slight change observed in flame length with hydrogen addition. This basic research provides a key resolution to the contradictory results that are typically reported in the literature for the impact of hydrogen on NOx emissions.



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