Humid Air Turbine Cycle Technology Development Program

Abstract

The Humid Air Turbine (HAT) Cycle Technology Development Program focused on obtaining HAT cycle combustor technology that will be the foundation of future products. The work carried out under the auspices of the HAT Program built on the extensive low emissions stationary gas turbine work performed in the past by Pratt & Whitney (P&W). This Program is an integral part of technology base development within the Advanced Turbine Systems Program at the Department of Energy (DOE) and its experiments stretched over 5 years. The goal of the project was to fill in technological data gaps in the development of the HAT cycle and identify a combustor configuration that would efficiently burn high moisture, high-pressure gaseous fuels with low emissions. The major emphasis will be on the development of kinetic data, computer modeling, and evaluations of combustor configurations.The Program commenced during the 4th Quarter of 1996 and closed in the 4th Quarter of 2001. It teamed the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) with P&W, the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), and a subcontractor on-site at UTRC, kraftWork Systems Inc. The execution of the program started with bench-top experiments that were conducted at UTRC for extending kinetic mechanisms to HAT cycle temperature, pressure, and moisture conditions. The fundamental data generated in the bench-top experiments was incorporated into the analytical tools available at P&W to design the fuel injectors and combustors. The NETL then used the hardware to conduct combustion rig experiments to evaluate the performance of the combustion systems at elevated pressure and temperature conditions representative of the HAT cycle. The results were integrated into systems analysis done by kraftWork to verify that sufficient understanding of the technology had been achieved and that large-scale technological application and demonstration could be undertaken as follow-on activity. An optional program extended the experimental combustion evaluations to several specific technologies that can be used with HAT technology.After 5 years of extensive research and development, P&W is pleased to report that the HAT Technology Development Program goals have been achieved. With 0 to 10 percent steam addition, emissions achieved during this program featured less than 8 ppm NO x , less than 16 ppm CO, and unburned hydrocarbons corrected to 15 percent O 2 for an FT8 engine operating between 0°and 120°F with 65 to 100 percent power at any day.