Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of a Dual-Fuel Dry-Low-NOx Micromix Combustor for Industrial Gas Turbine Applications

Abstract

The dry-low-NOx (DLN) micromix combustion technology has been developed originally as a low emission alternative for industrial gas turbine combustors fueled with hydrogen. Currently, the ongoing research process targets flexible fuel operation with hydrogen and syngas fuel. The nonpremixed combustion process features jet-in-crossflow-mixing of fuel and oxidizer and combustion through multiple miniaturized flames. The miniaturization of the flames leads to a significant reduction of NOx emissions due to the very short residence time of reactants in the flame. The paper presents the results of a numerical and experimental combustor test campaign. It is conducted as part of an integration study for a dual-fuel (H2 and H2/CO 90/10 vol %) micromix (MMX) combustion chamber prototype for application under full scale, pressurized gas turbine conditions in the auxiliary power unit Honeywell Garrett GTCP 36-300. In the presented experimental studies, the integration-optimized dual-fuel MMX combustor geometry is tested at atmospheric pressure over a range of gas turbine operating conditions with hydrogen and syngas fuel. The experimental investigations are supported by numerical combustion and flow simulations. For validation, the results of experimental exhaust gas analyses are applied. Despite the significantly differing fuel characteristics between pure hydrogen and hydrogen-rich syngas, the evaluated dual-fuel MMX prototype shows a significant low NOx performance and high combustion efficiency. The combustor features an increased energy density that benefits manufacturing complexity and costs.