Gas Turbines in Alternative Fuel Applications: Biodiesel Field Test

Abstract

As fuel candidates for power generation are mushrooming worldwide, there is presently a surge of interest around liquid biofuels that form a large and contrasting family. Among biofuels, biodiesels are natural candidates due to their compatibility with gasoil and their increasing use in the transportation sector. While biodiesels are similar to gasoils in terms of physical data, both their chemical properties and combustion behavior can be markedly different. In the framework of a development program devoted to biofuels and in collaboration with the Swiss power producer Groupe E, GE Energy has carried out a preliminary characterization of the combustion and emissions of a FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) at the Cornaux power plant, canton of Neuchaˆtel. This Field Test has been performed in a Frame 6B equipped with standard combustors and involved both a pure FAME consisting of RME (rapeseed methyl ester) and FAME co-fired with natural gas.