Recent advances in catalytic combustion for ground power gas turbine engines
Catalytic combustion is one means of meeting increasingly strict emissions requirements for ground-based gas turbine engines for power generation. In conventional homogeneous combustion, high flame temperatures and incomplete combustion lead to emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}) and carbon monoxide (CO), and in lean premixed systems unburned hydrocarbons (UHC). However, catalytic reaction upstream of a lean premixed homogeneous combustion zone can increase the fuel/air mixture reactivity sufficiently to allow low CO/UHC emissions at adiabatic flame temperatures below 1,500 C, with concurrent low NO{sub x} emissions. As a result, catalytic combustion technologies have demonstrated single-digit emissions, and meet DOE-ATS goals (NO{sub x} {lt} 10 ppm, and CO/UHC {lt} 20 ppm) by a wide margin. Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) is currently developing catalytic combustion systems for Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation. For natural gas fuel operation, PCI has demonstrated NO{sub x} {lt} 5 ppm, CO {lt} 1 ppm, and UHC {lt} 1 ppm (all corrected to 15% O2) in a sub-scale atmospheric rig, using a catalytic pre-reactor upstream of the combustion zone. For these tests, gas-phase combustion was stabilized in an 8-inch diameter convection-cooled metal liner at adiabatic flame temperatures from 1,250 C to 1,550 C. In parallel, extensive high pressure reactor component development and testing have been conducted at sub-scale, in preparation for high pressure testing of a full-scale catalytic combustor.
- Research Organization:
- Precision Combustion, Inc. (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20002236
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990608--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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