Advanced Combustion Systems For Next Generation Gas Turbines

Next generation turbine power plants will require high efficiency gas turbines with higher pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperatures than currently available. These increases in gas turbine cycle conditions will tend to increase NOx emissions. As the desire for higher efficiency drives pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperatures ever higher, gas turbines equipped with both lean premixed combustors and selective catalytic reduction after treatment eventually will be unable to meet the new emission goals of sub-3 ppm NOx. New gas turbine combustors are needed with lower emissions than the current state-of-the-art lean premixed combustors. In this program an advanced combustion system for the next generation of gas turbines is being developed with the goal of reducing combustor NOx emissions by 50% below the state-of-the-art. Dry Low NOx (DLN) technology is the current leader in NOx emission technology, guaranteeing 9 ppm NOx emissions for heavy duty F class gas turbines. This development program is directed at exploring advanced concepts which hold promise for meeting the low emissions targets. The trapped vortex combustor is an advanced concept in combustor design. It has been studied widely for aircraft engine applications because it has demonstrated the ability to maintain a stable flame over a wide range of fuel flow rates. Additionally, it has shown significantly lower NOx emission than a typical aircraft engine combustor and with low CO at the same time. The rapid CO burnout and low NOx production of this combustor made it a strong candidate for investigation. Incremental improvements to the DLN technology have not brought the dramatic improvements that are targeted in this program. A revolutionary combustor design is being explored because it captures many of the critical features needed to significantly reduce emissions. Experimental measurements of the combustor performance at atmospheric conditions were completed in the first phase of the program. Emissions measurements were obtained over a variety of operating conditions. A kinetics model is formulated to describe the emissions performance. The model is a tool for determining the conditions for low emission performance. The flow field was also modeled using CFD. A first prototype was developed for low emission performance on natural gas. The design utilized the tools anchored to the atmospheric prototype performance. The 1/6 scale combustor was designed for low emission performance in GE's FA+e gas turbine. A second prototype was developed to evaluate changes in the design approach. The prototype was developed at a 1/10 scale for low emission performance in GE's FA+e gas turbine. The performance of the first two prototypes gave a strong indication of the best design approach. Review of the emission results led to the development of a 3rd prototype to further reduce the combustor emissions. The original plan to produce a scaled-up prototype was pushed out beyond the scope of the current program. The 3rd prototype was designed at 1/10 scale and targeted further reductions in the full-speed full-load emissions.

Cranfield International Symposium Series, Volume 10: Combustion in Advanced Gas Turbine Systems covers the proceedings of an International Propulsion Symposium, held at the College of Aeronautics in Cranfield in April 1967. The book focuses on the processes, methodologies, reactions, and transformations involved in chemical combustion. The selection first takes a look at the design considerations in advanced gas turbine combustion chambers, combustion in industrial gas turbines, and combustion development on the Rolls-Royce Spey engine. Discussions focus on mechanical condition, carbon-formation and exhaust smoke, system requirements, fuel oil ash deposition and corrosion, combustion-system design, performance requirements, types of primary zone, fuel injection, and combustion chamber types. The text then examines subsonic flow flameholder studies using a low pressure simulation technique; stabilization of hydrogen diffusion flames by flame-holders in supersonic flow at low stagnation temperatures; and augmentation systems for turbofan engines. The book takes a look at a consideration of the possible use of refractory ceramic materials for advanced combustion chamber design; cooling of flame tubes by steam injection; and combustion problems in the massive steam injection gas turbine. The selection is a valuable source of information for researchers interested in the process of combustion in advanced gas turbine systems.

Leadership in gas turbine technologies is of continuing importance as the value of gas turbine production is projected to grow substantially by 2030 and beyond. Power generation, aviation, and the oil and gas industries rely on advanced technologies for gas turbines. Market trends including world demographics, energy security and resilience, decarbonization, and customer profiles are rapidly changing and influencing the future of these industries and gas turbine technologies. Technology trends that define the technological environment in which gas turbine research and development will take place are also changing - including inexpensive, large scale computational capabilities, highly autonomous systems, additive manufacturing, and cybersecurity. It is important to evaluate how these changes influence the gas turbine industry and how to manage these changes moving forward. Advanced Technologies for Gas Turbines identifies high-priority opportunities for improving and creating advanced technologies that can be introduced into the design and manufacture of gas turbines to enhance their performance. The goals of this report are to assess the 2030 gas turbine global landscape via analysis of global leadership, market trends, and technology trends that impact gas turbine applications, develop a prioritization process, define high-priority research goals, identify high-priority research areas and topics to achieve the specified goals, and direct future research. Findings and recommendations from this report are important in guiding research within the gas turbine industry and advancing electrical power generation, commercial and military aviation, and oil and gas production.

In spite of the increasing presence of renewable energy sources, fossil fuels will remain the primary supply of the world's energy needs for the upcoming future. Modern gas-turbine based systems represent one of the most efficient large-scale power generation technology currently available. Alongside this, gas-turbine power plants operate with very low emissions, have flexible operational characteristics and are able to utilize a broad range of fuels. It is expected that gas-turbine based plants will play an important role as an effective means of converting combustion energy in the future as well, because of the vast potential energy savings. The numerical approach to the design of complex systems such as gas-turbines has gained a continuous growth of interest in the last few decades. This because simulations are foreseen to provide a tremendous increase in the combustor efficiency, fuel-flexibility and quality over the next future. In this dissertation, an advanced turbulent combustion technique is implemented and progressively developed for the simulation of all the features that are typically observed in stationary gas-turbine combustion, including hydrogen as a fuel. The developed turbulent combustion model retains most of the accuracy of a detailed simulation while drastically reducing its computational time. As a result of this work, the advancement of power generation plants can be accelerated, paving the way for future developments of alternative fuel usage in a cleaner and more efficient combustion.

Leadership in gas turbine technologies is of continuing importance as the value of gas turbine production is projected to grow substantially by 2030 and beyond. Power generation, aviation, and the oil and gas industries rely on advanced technologies for gas turbines. Market trends including world demographics, energy security and resilience, decarbonization, and customer profiles are rapidly changing and influencing the future of these industries and gas turbine technologies. Technology trends that define the technological environment in which gas turbine research and development will take place are also changing - including inexpensive, large scale computational capabilities, highly autonomous systems, additive manufacturing, and cybersecurity. It is important to evaluate how these changes influence the gas turbine industry and how to manage these changes moving forward. Advanced Technologies for Gas Turbines identifies high-priority opportunities for improving and creating advanced technologies that can be introduced into the design and manufacture of gas turbines to enhance their performance. The goals of this report are to assess the 2030 gas turbine global landscape via analysis of global leadership, market trends, and technology trends that impact gas turbine applications, develop a prioritization process, define high-priority research goals, identify high-priority research areas and topics to achieve the specified goals, and direct future research. Findings and recommendations from this report are important in guiding research within the gas turbine industry and advancing electrical power generation, commercial and military aviation, and oil and gas production.

Everything you wanted to know about industrial gas turbines for electric power generation in one source with hard-to-find, hands-on technical information.

Here readers will find a summary of proceedings at a highly important NATO workshop. The ARW Advanced Combustion and Aerothermal Technologies: Environmental Protection and Pollution Reductions, was held in Kiev, May 2006. The workshop was co-directed by Profs. N. Syred and A.Khalatov, winners of the NATO Scientific Prize 2002, and was organized by the Institute of Thermophysics (Ukraine) and Cardiff University, UK. The primary workshop objective was to assess the existing knowledge on advanced combustion and aerothermal technologies providing reduced environmental impact.

Natural gas combustion turbines are rapidly becoming the primary technology of choice for generating electricity. At least half of the new generating capacity added in the US over the next twenty years will be combustion turbine systems. The Department of Energy has cosponsored with Siemens Westinghouse, a program to maintain the technology lead in gas turbine systems. The very ambitious eight year program was designed to demonstrate a highly efficient and commercially acceptable power plant, with the ability to fire a wide range of fuels. The main goal of the Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) Program was to develop ultra-high efficiency, environmentally superior and cost effective competitive gas turbine systems for base load application in utility, independent power producer and industrial markets. Performance targets were focused on natural gas as a fuel and included: System efficiency that exceeds 60% (lower heating value basis); Less than 10 ppmv NO{sub x} emissions without the use of post combustion controls; Busbar electricity that are less than 10% of state of the art systems; Reliability-Availability-Maintainability (RAM) equivalent to current systems; Water consumption minimized to levels consistent with cost and efficiency goals; and Commercial systems by the year 2000. In a parallel effort, the program was to focus on adapting the ATS engine to coal-derived or biomass fuels. In Phase 1 of the ATS Program, preliminary investigators on different gas turbine cycles demonstrated that net plant LHV based efficiency greater than 60% was achievable. In Phase 2 the more promising cycles were evaluated in greater detail and the closed-loop steam-cooled combined cycle was selected for development because it offered the best solution with least risk for achieving the ATS Program goals for plant efficiency, emissions, cost of electricity and RAM. Phase 2 also involved conceptual ATS engine and plant design and technology developments in aerodynamics, sealing, combustion, cooling, materials, coatings and casting development. The market potential for the ATS gas turbine in the 2000-2014 timeframe was assessed for combined cycle, simple cycle and integrated gasification combined cycle, for three engine sizes. The total ATS market potential was forecasted to exceed 93 GW. Phase 3 and Phase 3 Extension involved further technology development, component testing and W501ATS engine detail design. The technology development efforts consisted of ultra low NO{sub x} combustion, catalytic combustion, sealing, heat transfer, advanced coating systems, advanced alloys, single crystal casting development and determining the effect of steam on turbine alloys. Included in this phase was full-load testing of the W501G engine at the McIntosh No. 5 site in Lakeland, Florida.

Advanced Power Generation Systems examines the full range of advanced multiple output thermodynamic cycles that can enable more sustainable and efficient power production from traditional methods, as well as driving the significant gains available from renewable sources. These advanced cycles can harness the by-products of one power generation effort, such as electricity production, to simultaneously create additional energy outputs, such as heat or refrigeration. Gas turbine-based, and industrial waste heat recovery-based combined, cogeneration, and trigeneration cycles are considered in depth, along with Syngas combustion engines, hybrid SOFC/gas turbine engines, and other thermodynamically efficient and environmentally conscious generation technologies. The uses of solar power, biomass, hydrogen, and fuel cells in advanced power generation are considered, within both hybrid and dedicated systems. The detailed energy and exergy analysis of each type of system provided by globally recognized author Dr. Ibrahim Dincer will inform effective and efficient design choices, while emphasizing the pivotal role of new methodologies and models for performance assessment of existing systems. This unique resource gathers information from thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and energy system design to provide a single-source guide to solving practical power engineering problems. The only complete source of info on the whole array of multiple output thermodynamic cycles, covering all the design options for environmentally-conscious combined production of electric power, heat, and refrigeration Offers crucial instruction on realizing more efficiency in traditional power generation systems, and on implementing renewable technologies, including solar, hydrogen, fuel cells, and biomass Each cycle description clarified through schematic diagrams, and linked to sustainable development scenarios through detailed energy, exergy, and efficiency analyses Case studies and examples demonstrate how novel systems and performance assessment methods function in practice