Rediscovering Fire: Advancements in Gas Turbine Combustion
The post Rediscovering Fire: Advancements in Gas Turbine Combustion appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Gas power market drivers and a quest for relevance in future decarbonized systems are driving fundamental shifts in gas turbine combustion design approaches.
Combustion lies at the heart of gas turbine technology. It provides the core function of adding heat, through a controlled burn of large amounts of fuel and air, to a gas turbine’s conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy and, for power generating turbines, electrical energy. In concept, a combustor essentially comprises a fuel injector and a wall to contain the flame. But far from simplistic, the process must achieve a delicate balance of equivalence ratio between the fuel and available oxygen; flame stability; and operational stability to support acceleration and operation of the gas turbine over the entire load of the machine.
Developers have attempted to refine this complex dance for decades, as John Gülen, a fellow at Bechtel Infrastructure & Power Corp. and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the author of several books profiling the evolution and status of gas turbine technology, told POWER.…