GAS TO POWER
20Pages

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer, Adrien Sanz, Monamee Adhikari, Amanjit Hundal GEA34108 2018 © 2019 General Electric Company. All rights reserve

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 GE’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbine Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Gas Turbine Fuel Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power's Aeroderivative Gas Turbines INTRODUCTION As the world's demand for electricity continues, there are numerous opportunities for gas turbines to be part of the generation solution. Due to their installation and operational characteristics, aeroderivative gas turbines play a key role in power generation. Adding to this capability, aeroderivative gas turbines are highly fuel-flexible, able to operate on a wide variety of gaseous and liquid fuels. This paper provides an overview of these fuel flexibility capabilities,...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines PERCENT HYDROGEN (BY MASS) Refinery Offgas NGL LPG Butane Ethane Propane Naphtha Crude Oils Distillate #2 Heavy Distillates Residual Fuel SynGas – O2 Blown Blast Furnace Gas SynGas – Airblown SPECIFIC ENERGY (BY MASS) Figure 1 – Gas turbine fuel capabilities, per McCoy Power Reports, 1980-2017. Global Fuel Flex Installations by MW Global Fuel Flex Installations by Unit Count GENERAL ELECTRIC GENERAL ELECTRIC GE has the largest installed fleet of gas turbines for alternative fuel applications...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Diffusion Flame Flame Temperature FLAME CHARACTERISTICS • Highly stable • High peak flame temperature • NOx > 200ppm Premixed Flame FLAME CHARACTERISTICS • Lox NOx without dilutent • Susceptible to flame instabilities: flashback & combustion dynamics • Capable of single-digit NOx ppm LEAN Equivalence Ratio Figure 3 – Diffusion vs. premixed combustion. If extra air is introduced into the combustion reaction, the resulting lean mixture burns with a lower flame temperature and the reaction...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines fuels and fuel blends with hydrogen. The first SAC engine was sold in 1969, and today, the GE fleet has more than 2,600 aeroderivative gas turbines configured with this combustion system. These units have accumulated more than 105 million operating hours, providing customers with a multitude of benefits, including increased operational and fuel flexibility. Lean Premixed Combustion System — Dry Low Emissions (DLE) Combustor GE’s DLE combustors are configured with multiple rows of fuel...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power's Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Table 1 - Aeroderivative fuel flex capabilities Lean Methane — Natural Gas with High Levels of Inert Gases Another special category for natural gases is lean methane, also referred to as medium BTU gas. These are fuels from gas fields that naturally have significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) or nitrogen (N2). Gases from these fields may have as much as 60% CO2 or N2, resulting in methane concentrations as low as 40% (by volume). These fuels can have lower heating values (LHV) in the...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a subset of the gases separated out from the fractionation facility. Although there is no industry standard definition for LPG, it is typically a fuel that contains mostly propane and butane. The HD-5 version of LPG has a minimum propane concentration of 90% (by volume) with a maximum of 5% (by volume) of propylene (C3H6). Commercial grades of LPG as defined by ASTM D1835 are limited to 2.5% (by volume) of butane and higher molecular...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Figure 7 – Map of global flaring sites, Dec 2017. Data processing by NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center [19]; data was collected by the US Air Force Weather Agency. The general category of process gases can also include “waste” and “flare” gases. These gases include by-products from a wide variety of industries. Some of the gases are hydrocarbon rich and can easily be used as fuel in a gas turbine. Flare Gases Flare gases constitute a wide array of hydrocarbons that are waste or...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines In a gas turbine (as well as boilers and engines that use crude oil and heavy fuel oils), vanadium reacts with oxygen to become vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), which is a molten salt at typical temperatures in a gas turbine hot section. This compound rapidly attacks the oxide coatings present on many gas turbine components, which may in turn impact hardware durability. The typical mitigation is the use of a magnesium-based corrosion inhibitor, which creates a non-corrosive ash. However, this ash...

GAS TO POWER: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE The Fuel Flexibility of GE Power’s Aeroderivative Gas Turbines Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) LPG has been used as fuel in gas turbine power plants for over 25 years, typically as an alternative to natural gas and liquid fuels, on both aeroderivative and heavy-duty gas turbines. GE’s first use of LPG in the aeroderivative platform was in the late 1980s as a backup fuel on three LM2500 gas turbines at a site in the US. The gas turbines were configured for dual fuel operation with a SAC combustion system. The primary fuel was natural gas blended with steam...