Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Hydrogen is gaining prominence as a carbon reduction strategy for gas turbines by end users and equipment manufacturers within the power generation industry. The cost of new gas turbine units is restrictive, and many are already in service with remaining life. Therefore, there is a growing interest in retrofitting existing gas turbines that historically run on conventional fuels like natural gas and liquid oil. Though many gas turbine combustors currently run on small amounts of hydrogen, such older units have not been specifically designed to use high quantities of hydrogen as a fuel. Among the many technical challenges of implementing hydrogen on existing units is the potential impact on performance and on hot gas path components’ durability. The effects on performance can vary depending on the existing combustion system configuration, as some combustors utilize water or steam injection, and some operate in a dry mode. The current study provides insights into retrofitting dry combustors (i.e., without water or steam injection for emissions control), their influence on gas turbine performance, and potential implications to the hot section components. Two analytical models are employed. The first is a gas turbine performance code used to assess the effects of fuel composition changes on performance parameters such as output, heat rate, firing temperature, exhaust temperature, etc. The second is a thermal fatigue cycle model used to study the effects of the varied combustion products, including high amounts of H2O, on the turbine components.
Kapoor et al. (Mon,) studied this question.