Biodiesel as an Alternative Fuel in Siemens DLE Combustors: Atmospheric and High Pressure Rig Testing

Abstract

Atmospheric and high pressure rig tests were conducted to investigate the feasibility of using biodiesel as an alternative fuel to power industrial gas turbines in one of the world’s leading Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion systems, the SGT-100. At the same conditions, tests were also carried out for mineral diesel to provide reference information to evaluate biodiesel as an alternative fuel. In the atmospheric pressure rig tests, the likelihood of the machine lighting was identified based on the measured probability of the ignition of a single combustor. Lean ignition and extinction limits at various air temperatures were also investigated with different air assist pressures. The ignition test results reveal that reliable ignition can be achieved with biodiesel across a range of air mass flow rates and air fuel ratios. In the high pressure rig tests, emissions and combustion dynamics were measured for various combustor air inlet pressures, temperatures, combustor wall pressure drops and flame temperatures. These high pressure rig results show that biodiesel produced less NOx than mineral diesel. The test results indicate that the Siemens DLE combustion system can be adapted to use biodiesel as an alternative fuel without major modification.

Experimental study of industrial gas turbine flames including quantification of pressure influence on flow field, fuel/air premixing and flame shape

“…In recent experiments the DLE combustor has also been used for testing a novel stereoscopic high-speed imaging system [56,57]. The burner has a dual fuel capability (gaseous/liquid fuel), and probe measurements of temperature, species distributions and emissions have been undertaken with conventional diesel [58] and biodiesel [59] as fuel. No liquid fuel was used in the study presented here.…”

Temperatures of Spark Kernels Discharging into Quiescent or Crossflow Conditions

“…However, operating under lean conditions can approach the lower flammability limit, which can make reliable and consistent ignition more challenging [2]. Furthermore, alternative fuels may require different ignition energies or temperatures at varying operating conditions [3,4]. As a result, there is a need to further understand ignition and the development of kernels to help ensure engine reliability.…”

Influence of Residence Time on Fuel Spray Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) and Emissions Using Biodiesel and its Blends in a Low NOx Gas Turbine Combustor

“…Liu et al [8] measured and compared the droplet size of biodiesel and diesel fuels. They concluded that biodiesel had larger droplet size than diesel fuel at the same conditions.…”

“…They found that NOx emissions from biodiesel were in a comparable level and engine cold start could be an issue. Liu etc [8] reported a biodiesel testing program on industrial gas turbines that the pure biodiesel (B100) derived from waste cooking oil was tested on the atmospheric and pressure testing rigs in the SGT-100 DLE combustion system to investigate ignition, emission and combustion dynamics using. They found that the biodiesel was easier to ignite at high air mass flow rates and harder at lower flow rates and the lean extinction limits had similar trends as well.…”