Thermoacoustic Instability Considerations for High Hydrogen Combustion in Lean Premixed Gas Turbine Combustors: A Review

Abstract

Hydrogen is receiving increasing attention as a versatile energy vector to help accelerate the transition to a decarbonised energy future. Gas turbines will continue to play a critical role in providing grid stability and resilience in future low-carbon power systems; however, it is recognised that this role is contingent upon achieving increased thermal efficiencies and the ability to operate on carbon-neutral fuels such as hydrogen. An important consideration in the development of gas turbine combustors capable of operating with pure hydrogen or hydrogen-enriched natural gas are the significant changes in thermoacoustic instability characteristics associated with burning these fuels. This article provides a review of the effects of burning hydrogen on combustion dynamics with focus on swirl-stabilised lean-premixed combustors. Experimental and numerical evidence suggests hydrogen can have either a stabilising or destabilising impact on the dynamic state of a combustor through its influence particularly on flame structure and flame position. Other operational considerations such as the effect of elevated pressure and piloting on combustion dynamics as well as recent developments in micromix burner technology for 100% hydrogen combustion have also been discussed. The insights provided in this review will aid the development of instability mitigation strategies for high hydrogen combustion.

Recent Combustion Strategies in Gas Turbines for Propulsion and Power Generation toward a Zero-Emissions Future: Fuels, Burners, and Combustion Techniques

“…Despite these positive aspects, hydrogen shows some other challenging technical issues that must be addressed, such as potential flashback and autoignition due to its significantly higher flame speed and shorter autoignition time. Furthermore, an excessive lean combustion can lead to dangerous thermoacoustic instabilities [12][13][14][15][16][17]. This will require some modifications of current design features.…”

Analysis of methane, propane, and syngas oxy‐flames in a fuel‐flex gas turbine combustor for carbon capture

“…Due to this variation in static and dynamic stability, GTs which are designed to dynamically stable at lower Φ or lower flame temperatures may get unstable with H 2enrichment. 33 Furthermore, hydrogen addition inside a GT combustor can influence the flame-holding capabilities of natural gas as well. 34 Syngas, mainly constituting of CO and H 2 , can be used as a hydrogen-rich fuel in GTs.…”

“…The results indicated improved chemical kinetics with H 2 ‐nrichment making the chemical time scale shorter than the Kolmogorov time scale. Beita et al 33 reviewed the thermoacoustic instabilities of hydrogen‐enriched combustion in swirl‐stabilized LPM combustors. Hydrogen addition may cause the change in flame shapes from V‐type to M‐type as well.…”

Thermoacoustic stability prediction using classification algorithms

“…Rapid developments in experimental techniques and numerical capacities opened the door to a range of new strategies for studying combustion instabilities, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations (Veynante and Poinsot, 1997; Poinsot and Veynante, 2001; Polifke et al, 2001; Xia et al, 2019), low-order models (Keller, 1995; Paschereit and Polifke, 1998; Dowling and Stow, 2003; Li and Morgans, 2015; Nair and Sujith, 2015; Xia et al, 2019; Gaudron et al, 2020; Fournier et al, 2021), or hybrid methods (Kaess et al, 2008; Silva et al, 2013; Li et al, 2017; Ni et al, 2017; Merk et al, 2018). Next-generation combustors burning carbon-free fuels, such as hydrogen or ammonia, appear to show increased propensity to combustion instabilities (Æsøy et al, 2021; Beita et al, 2021; Lim et al, 2021). Being able to accurately determine the thermoacoustic stability of combustors will thus become even more critical as the fossil fuel era nears its end.…”