Biodiesel as an Alternative Fuel in Siemens Dry Low Emissions 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 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 (AFRs). In 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.