Search Results (4)

Dry-Low Emission (DLE) technology significantly reduces the emissions from the gas turbine process by implementing the principle of lean pre-mixed combustion. The pre-mix ensures low nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon monoxide (CO) production by operating at a particular range using a tight control strategy. However, sudden disturbances and improper load planning may lead to frequent tripping due to frequency deviation and combustion instability. Therefore, this paper proposed a semi-supervised technique to predict the suitable operating range as a tripping prevention strategy and a guide for efficient load planning. The prediction technique is developed by hybridizing Extreme Gradient Boosting and K-Means algorithm using actual plant data. Based on the result, the proposed model can predict the combustion temperature, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide concentration with an accuracy represented by R squared value of 0.9999, 0.9309, and 0.7109, which outperforms other algorithms such as decision tree, linear regression, support vector machine, and multilayer perceptron. Further, the model can identify DLE gas turbine operation regions and determine the optimum range the turbine can safely operate while maintaining lower emission production. The typical DLE gas turbine’s operating range can operate safely is found at 744.68 °C –829.64 °C. The proposed technique can be used as a preventive maintenance strategy in many applications involving tight operating range control in mitigating tripping issues. Furthermore, the findings significantly contribute to power generation fields for better control strategies to ensure the reliable operation of DLE gas turbines. Full article

The use of biogas in land-based gas turbines for power generation is a promising approach to reducing greenhouse gases and our dependence on fossil fuels. The focus of this research was to investigate the fuel/air mixing and combustion performance in an DLE (dry low emission) type can combustor designed for a micro-gas turbine. The fuel and air mixing uniformity was studied considering the air flow characteristic and fuel injection performance through the numerical simulation. The influence of the fuel/air mixing characteristics on the combustion characteristics was studied by numerical simulation and experimental tests. The combustion characteristics studied included the temperature field in the combustor, the pattern factor at the combustor outlet, combustion efficiency, and pollutant emission characteristics. The results show the position of the fuel nozzle has little effect on the mixing uniformity due to the limited mixing space for the micro-gas turbine combustor, while there are optimal fuel nozzle diameters to generate the suitable fuel jet momentum for the mixing process. The fuel/air mixing characteristics had an obvious influence on the combustion performance for the studied DLE combustor. The increase in the fuel air mixing uniformity can decrease the NOx emissions and generate a better temperature distribution at the combustor outlet. The increased mixing uniformity may decrease the combustion efficiency and increase the CO emissions of the micro-gas turbine combustor. Full article

The surface temperature of a burner nozzle using three different pilot hardware configurations was measured using lifetime phosphor thermometry with the ZnS:Ag phosphor in a gas turbine model combustor designed to mimic the Siemens DLE (Dry Low Emission) burner. The three pilot hardware configurations included a non-premixed pilot injection setup and two partially premixed pilot injections where one had a relatively higher degree of premixing. For each pilot hardware configuration, the combustor was operated with either methane or hydrogen-enriched methane (H₂/CH₄: 50/50 in volume %). The local heating from pilot flames was much more significant for hydrogen-enriched methane compared with pure methane due to the pilot flames being in general more closely attached to the pilot nozzles with hydrogen-enriched methane. For the methane fuel, the average surface temperature of the burner nozzle was approximately 40 K higher for the partially premixed pilot injection configuration with a lower degree of mixing as compared to the non-premixed pilot injection configuration. In contrast, with the hydrogen-enriched methane fuel, the differences in surface temperature between the different pilot injection hardware configurations were much smaller due to the close-to-nozzle frame structure. Full article

Dry-low emission (DLE) is one of the cleanest combustion types used in a gas turbine. DLE gas turbines have become popular due to their ability to reduce emissions by operating in lean-burn operation. However, this technology leads to challenges that sometimes interrupt regular operations. Therefore, this paper extensively reviews the development of the DLE gas turbine and its challenges. Numerous online publications from various databases, including IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science, are compiled to describe the evolution of gas turbine technology based on emissions, fuel flexibility, and drawbacks. Various gas turbine models, including physical and black box models, are further discussed in detail. Working principles, fuel staging mechanisms, and advantages of DLE gas turbines followed by common faults that lead to gas turbine tripping are specifically discussed. A detailed evaluation of lean blow-out (LBO) as the major fault is subsequently highlighted, followed by the current methods in LBO prediction. The literature confirms that the DLE gas turbine has the most profitable features against other clean combustion methods. Simulation using Rowen’s model significantly imitates the actual behavior of the DLE gas turbine that can be used to develop a control strategy to maintain combustion stability. Lastly, the data-driven LBO prediction method helps minimize the flame’s probability of a blow-out. Full article