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Abstract Due to increasing requirements for gas turbine efficiency, it is necessary to effectively control thermal NOx emissions while elevating the combustor outlet temperature, in order to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations. At the same time, the prospective demand for carbon reduction and capture requires gas turbines to improve fuel flexibility, capable of burning syngas or fuels enriched by higher proportions of hydrogen. Gas turbine manufacturers have been testing the axially staged combustion technology on H-class gas turbines, which helps to reduce NO emissions, improve fuel flexibility, and reduce the risk of combustion instability. Considering that the majority of previous literature separately studies the impact of individual parameters on emissions or stability, this paper will discuss the determination and optimization of axially staged combustors overall design parameters, namely the air, fuel, and residence time distribution ratios between the first and second stage burners, under the condition of specified thermal power and emission levels. The main work includes: 1) developing a mathematical model for predicting pollutants in axially staged combustors, while studying the impact of staged parameters on NO, and analyzing the parameter range for low emission operation of axially staged combustors; 2) verifying the model by conducting chemical reaction network calculations using detailed chemical reaction mechanisms; 3) by using NO emissions as the objective function to optimize the staged parameters, two ranges of parameters that meet the emission requirements were obtained, respectively characterizing the lean and rich burn conditions of the first staged burner; 4) discussing the impact of the hydro-carbon fuel components on the operating range. The results will provide guidance for expanding the operating range, improving fuel flexibility, and reducing emissions of axially staged combustors.
Liang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.