Dual Injection Distributed Combustion for Gas Turbine Application

Abstract

Distributed combustion has been shown to provide significantly improved performance with near zero emissions for stationary gas turbine applications. Characteristics of distributed combustion include uniform thermal field in the entire combustion chamber (improved pattern factor), ultra-low emissions of NOx and CO, low noise, enhanced stability, and higher efficiency. Distributed combustion with swirl have been investigated to determine the beneficial aspects of such flows on clean and efficient combustion under simulated gas turbine combustion conditions with ultra-low NOx emissions. Results are presented here on the impact of employing dual injection of air and fuel in contrast to single injection. Dual and multi-injection is of great importance for combustor design scale up as to maintain flow similarities. Results showed that careful implementation of dual injection can result in emissions as low as single air/fuel injection method. With adequate fuel injection strategy, further reduction in emissions has been demonstrated. Results obtained on pollutants emission with dual injection and different fuel injection strategies at various equivalence ratios showed ultra-low emission (<5 PPM NO and <15 PPM CO) and high performance. OH* chemiluminescence revealed relative position of the flame within the combustor under various conditions for further improvements in distributed combustion conditions and to further reduce NOx emission.