New concepts for power generation are discussed as a response to CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. These concepts include low-carbon fuels as well as new fuel supplies will be used, with (biogenic) low-caloric gases such as syngas with an amount of hydrogen, with a share of 50% and even higher. However, hydrogen mixtures have a higher reactivity than natural gas (NG) mixtures, burned mostly in today’s gas turbine combustors.
The authors discuss in this paper the potential of a micro gas turbine (MGT) combustor when operated under unconventional conditions, both in terms of variation in the fuel supplied and concerning the part-load or off-design operation.
In particular, the authors’ methodology relies on an advanced CFD approach that makes use of extended kinetic mechanisms coupled with the turbulent interaction of the reacting species. A preliminary set-up of the combustion model is based on data provided by experimental tests of the micro-turbine.
In the paper, several computational examples are discussed, namely:
- The comparison of combustion stability and efficiency and pollutant production with several fuels.
- The analysis of the combustor response with reduced load.
- The use of the pilot and main injectors for supplying different fuels.