scholarly journals On the Potential of Power Generation from Thermoelectric Generators in Gas Turbine Combustors

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Stathopoulos ◽  
Javier Fernàndez-Villa

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) offer an attractive power generation option. They have no moving parts, are robust and emit no pollutants. The current work explores the integration of high temperature TEGs in gas turbine combustors. The latter have a thermal shield at their inner surface to protect them against high temperatures. This is supplemented by convective and film cooling. This work studies the replacement of the thermal shield with high temperature TEGs and evaluates their techno-economic potential. A gas turbine model is developed and validated to compute the fuel and air flow rate in the combustion chamber. A heat transfer model is subsequently implemented to compute the temperature distribution inside the combustor wall, on which the TEG is constructed. The investment in TEGs is then analyzed for peaker, intermediate load and base load gas turbines. The work concludes with a sensitivity analysis of the investment economic performance. It is concluded that, despite the low power generation, the installation of TEGs makes economic sense, even if their price becomes 50% higher than current estimations. It is also concluded that electricity prices have a much stronger effect on the economic viability of the investment than the price of the generators.

Author(s):  
Wolfgang Kappis ◽  
Stefan Florjancic ◽  
Uwe Ruedel

Market requirements for the heavy duty gas turbine power generation business have significantly changed over the last few years. With high gas prices in former times, all users have been mainly focusing on efficiency in addition to overall life cycle costs. Today individual countries see different requirements, which is easily explainable picking three typical trends. In the United States, with the exploitation of shale gas, gas prices are at a very low level. Hence, many gas turbines are used as base load engines, i.e. nearly constant loads for extended times. For these engines reliability is of main importance and efficiency somewhat less. In Japan gas prices are extremely high, and therefore the need for efficiency is significantly higher. Due to the challenge to partly replace nuclear plants, these engines as well are mainly intended for base load operation. In Europe, with the mid and long term carbon reduction strategy, heavy duty gas turbines is mainly used to compensate for intermittent renewable power generation. As a consequence, very high cyclic operation including fast and reliable start-up, very high loading gradients, including frequency response, and extended minimum and maximum operating ranges are required. Additionally, there are other features that are frequently requested. Fuel flexibility is a major demand, reaching from fuels of lower purity, i.e. with higher carbon (C2+), content up to possible combustion of gases generated by electrolysis (H2). Lifecycle optimization, as another important request, relies on new technologies for reconditioning, lifetime monitoring, and improved lifetime prediction methods. Out of Alstom’s recent research and development activities the following items are specifically addressed in this paper. Thermodynamic engine modelling and associated tasks are discussed, as well as the improvement and introduction of new operating concepts. Furthermore extended applications of design methodologies are shown. An additional focus is set ono improve emission behaviour understanding and increased fuel flexibility. Finally, some applications of the new technologies in Alstom products are given, indicating the focus on market requirements and customer care.


Author(s):  
Pratyush Nag ◽  
David Little ◽  
Adam Plant ◽  
Douglas Roth

The US gas turbine (GT) power generation market has seen significant volatility in recent years due to climate changes, changes in natural gas prices and the uncertain future of nuclear and coal power generation. Many gas turbine power plants originally intended to operate on a more continuous basis (base load) are operating in intermittent dispatch mode which has caused some operators to frequently shut down their units. This frequent cycling of units can increase start-up and maintenance costs. It could be beneficial to these plants to operate at lower loads when power demand is low and ramp up to higher loads as demand increases. A key issue in operating at lower loads is an increase in carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. When the engines are base loaded, the combustion system operates at high firing temperatures and most of the CO is oxidized to carbon dioxide (CO2). However, at part loads — when the firing temperature is lower — the CO to CO2 oxidation reaction is quenched by the cool regions near the walls of the combustion liner. This results in increased CO emissions at low loads. In order to provide greater operational flexibility to its F- & G-class gas turbine operators, Siemens has developed an upgrade for the engine system designed to allow the gas turbine to operate at lower loads while maintaining emissions. This low load turndown upgrade has been installed, tested and is currently in operation at 8 F and 4 G class Siemens operating gas turbines. These plants were previously operating typically between 70% and 100% of GT base load. Sometimes, when the demand for power was low, typically at night and on weekends, these plants would shut down. During these low power demand periods — with this upgrade installed — these plants continue to operate down to lower loads while maintaining CO emissions and with a capability to more quickly ramp-up to full load when the demand for power increases. This paper details the installation, testing results and continued validation of the Low Load Turndown upgrade.


2014 ◽  
Vol 971-973 ◽  
pp. 143-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Dai ◽  
Shuang Xiu Li

The development of a new generation of high performance gas turbine engines requires gas turbines to be operated at very high inlet temperatures, which are much higher than the allowable metal temperatures. Consequently, this necessitates the need for advanced cooling techniques. Among the numerous cooling technologies, the film cooling technology has superior advantages and relatively favorable application prospect. The recent research progress of film cooling techniques for gas turbine blade is reviewed and basic principle of film cooling is also illustrated. Progress on rotor blade and stationary blade of film cooling are introduced. Film cooling development of leading-edge was also generalized. Effect of various factor on cooling effectiveness and effect of the shape of the injection holes on plate film cooling are discussed. In addition, with respect to progress of discharge coefficient is presented. In the last, the future development trend and future investigation direction of film cooling are prospected.


Author(s):  
Michele Scervini ◽  
Catherine Rae

A new Nickel based thermocouple for high temperature applications in gas turbines has been devised at the Department of Material Science and Metallurgy of the University of Cambridge. This paper describes the new features of the thermocouple, the drift tests on the first prototype and compares the behaviour of the new sensor with conventional mineral insulated metal sheathed Type K thermocouples: the new thermocouple has a significant improvement in terms of drift and temperature capabilities. Metallurgical analysis has been undertaken on selected sections of the thermocouples exposed at high temperatures which rationalises the reduced drift of the new sensor. A second prototype will be tested in follow-on research, from which further improvements in drift and temperature capabilities are expected.


Author(s):  
Elliot Sullivan-Lewis ◽  
Vincent McDonell

Lean-premixed gas turbines are now common devices for low emissions stationary power generation. By creating a homogeneous mixture of fuel and air upstream of the combustion chamber, temperature variations are reduced within the combustor, which reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides. However, by premixing fuel and air, a potentially flammable mixture is established in a part of the engine not designed to contain a flame. If the flame propagates upstream from the combustor (flashback), significant engine damage can result. While significant effort has been put into developing flashback resistant combustors, these combustors are only capable of preventing flashback during steady operation of the engine. Transient events (e.g., auto-ignition within the premixer and pressure spikes during ignition) can trigger flashback that cannot be prevented with even the best combustor design. In these cases, preventing engine damage requires designing premixers that will not allow a flame to be sustained. Experimental studies were conducted to determine under what conditions premixed flames of hydrogen and natural gas can be anchored in a simulated gas turbine premixer. Tests have been conducted at pressures up to 9 atm, temperatures up to 750 K, and freestream velocities between 20 and 100 m/s. Flames were anchored in the wakes of features typical of premixer passageways, including cylinders, steps, and airfoils. The results of this study have been used to develop an engineering tool that predicts under what conditions a flame will anchor, and can be used for development of flame anchoring resistant gas turbine premixers.


Author(s):  
Keisuke Makino ◽  
Ken-Ichi Mizuno ◽  
Toru Shimamori

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. has been developing various silicon nitride materials, and the technology for fabricating components for ceramic gas turbines (CGT) using theses materials. We are supplying silicon nitride material components for the project to develop 300 kW class CGT for co-generation in Japan. EC-152 was developed for components that require high strength at high temperature, such as turbine blades and turbine nozzles. In order to adapt the increasing of the turbine inlet temperature (TIT) up to 1,350 °C in accordance with the project goals, we developed two silicon nitride materials with further unproved properties: ST-1 and ST-2. ST-1 has a higher strength than EC-152 and is suitable for first stage turbine blades and power turbine blades. ST-2 has higher oxidation resistance than EC-152 and is suitable for power turbine nozzles. In this paper, we report on the properties of these materials, and present the results of evaluations of these materials when they are actually used for CGT components such as first stage turbine blades and power turbine nozzles.


Author(s):  
Matti Malkamäki ◽  
Ahti Jaatinen-Värri ◽  
Antti Uusitalo ◽  
Aki Grönman ◽  
Juha Honkatukia ◽  
...  

Decentralized electricity and heat production is a rising trend in small-scale industry. There is a tendency towards more distributed power generation. The decentralized power generation is also pushed forward by the policymakers. Reciprocating engines and gas turbines have an essential role in the global decentralized energy markets and improvements in their electrical efficiency have a substantial impact from the environmental and economic viewpoints. This paper introduces an intercooled and recuperated three stage, three-shaft gas turbine concept in 850 kW electric output range. The gas turbine is optimized for a realistic combination of the turbomachinery efficiencies, the turbine inlet temperature, the compressor specific speeds, the recuperation rate and the pressure ratio. The new gas turbine design is a natural development of the earlier two-spool gas turbine construction and it competes with the efficiencies achieved both with similar size reciprocating engines and large industrial gas turbines used in heat and power generation all over the world and manufactured in large production series. This paper presents a small-scale gas turbine process, which has a simulated electrical efficiency of 48% as well as thermal efficiency of 51% and can compete with reciprocating engines in terms of electrical efficiency at nominal and partial load conditions.


Author(s):  
Tomoki Taniguchi ◽  
Ryoji Tamai ◽  
Yoshihiko Muto ◽  
Satoshi Takami ◽  
Ryozo Tanaka ◽  
...  

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd (KHI) has started a comprehensive program to further improve performance and availability of existing Kawasaki gas turbines. In the program, one of the Kawasaki’s existing gas turbine was selected from the broad product line and various kinds of technology were investigated and adopted to further improve its thermal performance and availability. The new technologies involve novel film cooling of turbine nozzles, advanced and large-scale numerical simulations, new thermal barrier coating. The thermal performance target is combined cycle efficiency of 51.6% and the target ramp rate is 20% load per minute. The program started in 2015 and engine testing has just started. In this paper, details of the program are described, focusing on design procedure.


Author(s):  
Dieter Bohn ◽  
Nathalie Po¨ppe ◽  
Joachim Lepers

The present paper reports a detailed technological assessment of two concepts of integrated micro gas turbine and high temperature (SOFC) fuel cell systems. The first concept is the coupling of micro gas turbines and fuel cells with heat exchangers, maximising availability of each component by the option for easy stand-alone operation. The second concept considers a direct coupling of both components and a pressurised operation of the fuel cell, yielding additional efficiency augmentation. Based on state-of-the-art technology of micro gas turbines and solid oxide fuel cells, the paper analyses effects of advanced cycle parameters based on future material improvements on the performance of 300–400 kW combined micro gas turbine and fuel cell power plants. Results show a major potential for future increase of net efficiencies of such power plants utilising advanced materials yet to be developed. For small sized plants under consideration, potential net efficiencies around 70% were determined. This implies possible power-to-heat-ratios around 9.1 being a basis for efficient utilisation of this technology in decentralised CHP applications.


Author(s):  
Mark A. Paisley ◽  
Donald Anson

The Biomass Power Program of the US Department of Energy (DOE) has as a major goal the development of cost-competitive technologies for the production of power from renewable biomass crops. The gasification of biomass provides the potential to meet his goal by efficiently and economically producing a renewable source of a clean gaseous fuel suitable for use in high efficiency gas turbines. This paper discusses the development and first commercial demonstration of the Battelle high-throughput gasification process for power generation systems. Projected process economics are presented along with a description of current experimental operations coupling a gas turbine power generation system to the research scale gasifier and the process scaleup activities in Burlington, Vermont.


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