THE EFFECTS OF BURNING ALTERNATIVE LIQUID FUELS IN GAS TURBINE COMBUSTORS ON THE OVERALL OPERATING CONDITIONS AND PERFORMANCE
Gabriela de Castro Almeida1; Washington Orlando Irrazabal Bohorquez2; Marco Aurélio da Cunha Alves2
1 Universidade Federal Juiz de Fora; 2 Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-1084
Resumo
Gas turbines are thermal machines with the great advantage of being capable of successfully burning a large variety of fuels in a continuous combustion process. Alternative liquid fuels are among possible fuels of interest, in addition to oil-derived fuels. Much research is being carried out in this field, aiming at the design and development of gas turbine combustors to successfully burn conventional and renewable fuels. Research to investigate the influence of alternative liquid fuels on the preliminary design, overall operating characteristics and performance of an industrial small size gas turbine combustor is reported. Design point and in-depth off-design analysis were performed to predict operation parameters when burning alcohol fuels instead of diesel. The preliminary design, overall operating conditions and performance characteristics were calculated numerically using in-house developed computer codes, based on direct fuel injection, diffusion flames, stability loops and reaction mechanisms. Conclusions like air mass flow rate, fuel mass flow rate, pressure, combustion volume and type of used fuel have a marked effect on the stability of the combustion process and combustion advancement in the combustor zones, as well as equivalence ratio in the primary zone, have important influence on the production rate of combustion products (CO, CO2, NOX and OH) at the combustor exit.
Palavras-chave: Gas turbine combustor; Alternative liquid fuels; Combustion; Reaction mechanisms; Numerical simulation