Effects of Hydrogen Fueling on NOx Emissions: A Reactor Model Approach for an Industrial Gas Turbine Combustor

Author(s):  
D. Kroniger ◽  
M. Lipperheide ◽  
M. Wirsum

Addition of hydrogen (H2) to gas turbine fuel has recently become a topic of interest facing the global challenges of CO2 free combustion. As a drawback, Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are likely to increase in hydrogen-rich fuel combustion which in return limits the use of the technology. In the course of this development, a model-based quantification of NOx emission increase by fuel flexibility may identify possible operation ranges of this technology. This paper evaluates the effect of an increased hydrogen fraction in the fuel on the NOx emissions of a non-premixed 10 MWth gas turbine combustor. A simple reactor network model has been set up using a perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) to simulate the flame zone and a plug flow reactor (PFR) to simulate the post flame zone. The change of residence time in the flame zone is accounted for by an empirical expression. The model is validated against data from high-pressure test rig experiments of an industrial non-premixed gas turbine combustor. The model results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Based on the model results, a fundamental correlation of the effect of hydrogen on the NOx emissions is formulated.

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Tonouchi ◽  
T. J. Held ◽  
H. C. Mongia

A gas turbine combustor is modeled using a two-reactor, finite-rate mixing and chemistry gas particle approach. The first reactor, used to simulate combustion in the primary zone, permits independent definition of the rates of macromixing and micromixing within the reactor, and the amount of premixing of fuel and air entering the reactor. Finite-rate macromixing is simulated by consideration of the fluid particle residence time distribution frequency function and the ages of the particles in the reactor. Finite-rate micromixing is simulated using a modified Coalescence-Dispersion (C-D) model. The second reactor model simulates combustion in the dilution zone of the combustor, and is modeled as a plug flow reactor with cross-flowing jets of dilution air and co-flowing streams of cooling film air. The primary zone reactor model predicts physically reasonable trends in mean temperature, and CO and NOx emissions as the macromixing and micromixing parameters are varied with respect to the perfectly stirred reactor limit. The model also has shown to predict the correct trends in modeling NOx and CO emissions from aircraft engine gas turbine combustors.


Author(s):  
Kang Xu ◽  
Suhua Shen ◽  
Chenkai Li ◽  
Lipeng Zheng

A novel method has been developed for predicting flow field by a set of physics-based and empirical equations which provide inputs to a chemical reactor networks (CRN) composed of Perfectly Stirred Reactors (PSR) and Plug Flow Reactors (PFR), allowing rapid and reasonable analysis of NOx emissions. The method is applied to a rectangular section of a gas turbine combustor and the simulation results are compared with experimental results. The CRN has been established and successfully validated for baseline operating conditions. This methodology has shown to be efficient for estimating NOx emissions with a short simulation time (few minutes) and small CPU requirements.


Author(s):  
J. H. Tonouchi ◽  
T. J. Held ◽  
H. C. Mongia

A gas turbine combustor is modeled using a two-reactor, finite-rate mixing and chemistry gas particle approach. The first reactor, used to simulate combustion in the primary zone, permits independent definition of the rates of macromixing and micromixing within the reactor, and the amount of premixing of fuel and air entering the reactor. Finite-rate macromixing is simulated by consideration of the fluid particle residence time distribution frequency function and the ages of the particles in the reactor. Finite-rate micromixing is simulated using a modified Coalescence-Dispersion (C-D) model. The second reactor model simulates combustion in the dilution zone of the combustor, and is modeled as a plug flow reactor with cross-flowing jets of dilution air and co-flowing streams of cooling film air. The primary zone reactor model predicts physically reasonable trends in mean temperature, and CO and NOx emissions as the macromixing and micromixing parameters are varied with respect to the perfectly-stirred reactor limit. The model also has shown to predict the correct trends in modeling NOx and CO emissions from aircraft engine gas turbine combustors.


Author(s):  
Ioannis Goulos ◽  
Fakhre Ali ◽  
Konstantinos Tzanidakis ◽  
Vassilios Pachidis ◽  
Roberto d'Ippolito

This paper presents an integrated methodology for the comprehensive assessment of combined rotorcraft–powerplant systems at mission level. Analytical evaluation of existing and conceptual designs is carried out in terms of operational performance and environmental impact. The proposed approach comprises a wide-range of individual modeling theories applicable to rotorcraft flight dynamics and gas turbine engine performance. A novel, physics-based, stirred reactor model is employed for the rapid estimation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions. The individual mathematical models are implemented within an elaborate numerical procedure, solving for total mission fuel consumption and associated pollutant emissions. The combined approach is applied to the comprehensive analysis of a reference twin-engine light (TEL) aircraft modeled after the Eurocopter Bo 105 helicopter, operating on representative mission scenarios. Extensive comparisons with flight test data are carried out and presented in terms of main rotor trim control angles and power requirements, along with general flight performance charts including payload-range diagrams. Predictions of total mission fuel consumption and NOx emissions are compared with estimated values provided by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA). Good agreement is exhibited between predictions made with the physics-based stirred reactor model and experimentally measured values of NOx emission indices. The obtained results suggest that the production rates of NOx pollutant emissions are predominantly influenced by the behavior of total air inlet pressure upstream of the combustion chamber, which is affected by the employed operational procedures and the time-dependent all-up mass (AUM) of the aircraft. It is demonstrated that accurate estimation of on-board fuel supplies ahead of flight is key to improving fuel economy as well as reducing environmental impact. The proposed methodology essentially constitutes an enabling technology for the comprehensive assessment of existing and conceptual rotorcraft–powerplant systems, in terms of operational performance and environmental impact.


1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Clark ◽  
B. A. Folsom ◽  
W. R. Seeker ◽  
C. W. Courtney

The high efficiencies obtained in a combined gas-turbine/steam-turbine power cycle burning low Btu gas (LBG) make it a potentially attractive alternative to the high sulfur emitting direct coal-fired steam cycle. In the gasification process, much of the bound nitrogen in coal is converted to ammonia in the LBG. This ammonia is largely converted to nitrogen oxides (NOx) in conventional combustors. This paper examines the pressurized bench scale performance of reactors previously demonstrated to produce low NOx emissions in atmospheric laboratory scale experiments. LBG was synthesized in a catalytic reformer and fired in three reactors: a catalytic reactor, a diffusion flame, and a stirred reactor. Effects of scale, pressure, stoichiometry, residence time, and preheat were examined. Lowest NOx emissions were produced in a rich/lean series staged catalytic reactor.


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):  
G. Arvind Rao ◽  
Yeshayahou Levy ◽  
Ephraim J. Gutmark

Flameless combustion (FC) is one of the most promising techniques of reducing harmful emissions from combustion systems. FC is a combustion phenomenon that takes place at low O2 concentration and high inlet reactant temperature. This unique combination results in a distributed combustion regime with a lower adiabatic flame temperature. The paper focuses on investigating the chemical kinetics of an prototype combustion chamber built at the university of Cincinnati with an aim of establishing flameless regime and demonstrating the applicability of FC to gas turbine engines. A Chemical reactor model (CRM) has been built for emulating the reactions within the combustor. The entire combustion chamber has been divided into appropriate number of Perfectly Stirred Reactors (PSRs) and Plug Flow Reactors (PFRs). The interconnections between these reactors and the residence times of these reactors are based on the PIV studies of the combustor flow field. The CRM model has then been used to predict the combustor emission profile for various equivalence ratios. The results obtained from CRM model show that the emission from the combustor are quite less at low equivalence ratios and have been found to be in reasonable agreement with experimental observations. The chemical kinetic analysis gives an insight on the role of vitiated combustion gases in suppressing the formation of pollutants within the combustion process.


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.


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