The Correlation of IR Microturbine Combustion Performance While Burning Diluted Gaseous Fuel Supplied by a Fuel Mixing Facility

Abstract

Ingersoll-Rand Energy Systems commissioned the construction of a fuel mixing facility to test its commercial microturbines fueled with alternative fuels like those produced by landfills, agricultural digesters, wastewater treatment plants, and petroleum gas well heads. This paper provides an overview of the fuel mixing facility and its capabilities, a discussion of diluted fuel compositions that are typically found in field applications, and a summary of the combustion performance of the IR 250 kW and 70 kW microturbines while operating on diluted fuels (LHV < 34 MJ/m3). The pollutant emission measurements taken with the microturbine burning diluted fuel supplied by the fuel mixing facility are compared with the measured emissions taken from a microturbine operating at a landfill to provide validation of the measurements gathered from the fuel mixing facility. Pollutant emissions are closely tied to not only the magnitude of diluents, but the composition of the diluents as well.