Future power plants will require some type of carbon capture and storage (CCS) system to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. The most promising technologies for CCS are: oxyfuel (O-F) combustion, pre-combustion capture, and postcombustion capture. This paper discusses the recent work conducted by Siemens Power Generation, Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc. (FTT) and Clean Energy Systems, Inc. (CES) in adapting high temperature gas turbines to use CES's drive gases in high-efficiency O-F zero emission power plants (ZEPPs). CES's O-F cycle features high-pressure combustion of fuel with oxygen (O 2 ) in the presence of recycled coolant (water, steam or CO 2 ) to produce drive gases composed predominantly of steam and CO 2 . This cycle provides the unique capability to capture nearly pure CO 2 and trace by-products by simple condensation of the steam.An attractive O-F power cycle uses high, intermediate and low pressure turbines (HPT, IPT and LPT, respectively). The HPT may be based on either current commercial or advanced steam turbine technology. Low pressure steam turbine technology is readily applicable to the LPT. To achieve high efficiencies, an IPT is necessary and efficiency increases with inlet temperature. The high-temperature IPT's necessitate advanced turbine materials and cooling technology. O-F plants have an abundance of water, cool steam ~200ºC (400ºF) and CO 2 that can be used as cooling fluids within the combustor and IPT systems.For the "First Generation" ZEPP, a General Electric J79 turbine, minus the compressor, to be driven directly by CES's 170 MW t high-pressure oxy-fuel combustor (gas generator), has been adapted. A modest inlet gas temperature of 760ºC (1400ºF) was selected to eliminate the need for turbine cooling. The J79 turbine operating on natural gas delivers 32 MW e and incorporates a single-stage free-turbine that generates an additional 11 MW e . When an HPT and an LPT are added, the net output power (accounting for losses) becomes 60 MW e at 30% efficiency based on lower heating value (LHV), including the parasitic loads for O 2 separation and compression and for CO 2 capture and compression to 151.5 bar (2200 psia). For an inlet temperature of 927ºC (1700ºF), the nominal value, the net output power is 70 MW e at 34% efficiency (LHV).FTT and CES are evaluating a "Second Generation" IPT with a gas inlet temperature of 1260ºC (2300ºF). Predicted performance values for these plants incorporating the HPT, IPT and the LPT are: output power of approximately 100-200 MW e with an efficiency of 40 to 45%.The "Third Generation" IPT for 2015+ power plants will be based on the development of very high temperature turbines having an inlet temperature goal of 1760ºC (3200ºF). Recent DOE/CES studies project such plants will have LHV efficiencies in the 50% range for natural gas and HHV efficiencies near 40% for gasified coal [ ] 1 .
The present study evaluates an innovative approach for enhancement of surface heat transfer in a channel using concavities, rather than protruding elements. Serving as a vortex generator, a concavity is expected to promote turbulent mixing in the flow bulk and enhance the heat transfer. Using a transient liquid crystal imaging system, local heat transfer distribution on the surface roughened by an staggered array based on two different shapes of concavities, i.e. hemispheric and tear-drop shaped, have been obtained, analyzed and compared. The results reveal that both concavity configurations induce a heat transfer enhancement similar to that of continuous rib turbulators, about 2.5 times their smooth counterparts 10,000 ≤ Re ≤ 50,000. In addition, both concavity arrays reveal remarkably low pressure losses that are nearly one-half the magnitudes incurred with protruding elements. In turbine cooling applications, the concavity approach is particularly attractive in reducing system weight and ease of manufacturing.
The clearance gap between the stationary outer air seal and blade tips of an axial turbine allows a clearance gap leakage flow to be driven through the gap by the pressure-to-suction side pressure difference. The presence of strong secondary flows on the pressure side of the airfoil tends to deliver air from the hottest regions of the mainstream to the clearance gap. The blade tip region, particularly near the trailing edge, is very difficult to cool adequately with blade internal coolant flow. In this case, film cooling injection directly onto the blade tip region can be used in an attempt to directly reduce the heat transfer rates from the hot gases in the clearance gap to the blade tip. The present paper is intended as a memorial tribute to the late Professor Darryl E. Metzger who has made significant contributions in this particular area over the past decade. A summary of this work is made to present the results of his more recent experimental work that has been performed to investigate the effects of film coolant injection on convection heat transfer to the turbine blade tip for a variety of tip shapes and coolant injection configurations. Experiments are conducted with blade tip models that are stationary relative to the simulated outer air seal based on the result of earlier works that found the leakage flow to be mainly a pressure-driven flow which is related strongly to the airfoil pressure loading distribution and only weakly, if at all, to the relative motion between blade tip and shroud. Both heat transfer and film effectiveness are measured locally over the test surface using a transient thermal liquid crystal test technique with a computer vision data acquisition and reduction system for various combinations of clearance heights, clearance flow Reynolds numbers, and film flow rates with different coolant injection configurations. The present results reveal a strong dependency of film cooling performance on the choice of the coolant supply hole shapes and injection locations for a given tip geometry.
Future fossil-fueled power generation systems will require carbon capture and sequestration to comply with government green house gas regulations. The three prime candidate technologies that capture carbon dioxide (CO2) are pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxy-fuel combustion techniques. Clean Energy Systems, Inc. (CES) has recently demonstrated oxy-fuel technology applicable to gas turbines, gas generators, and reheat combustors at their 50MWth research test facility located near Bakersfield, California. CES, in conjunction with Siemens Energy, Inc. and Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc. (FTT) have been working to develop and demonstrate turbomachinery systems that accommodate the inherent characteristics of oxy-fuel (O-F) working fluids. The team adopted an aggressive, but economical development approach to advance turbine technology towards early product realization; goals include incremental advances in power plant output and efficiency while minimizing capital costs and cost of electricity [1]. Proof-of-concept testing was completed via a 20MWth oxy-fuel combustor at CES’s Kimberlina prototype power plant. Operability and performance limits were explored by burning a variety of fuels, including natural gas and (simulated) synthesis gas, over a wide range of conditions to generate a steam/CO2 working fluid that was used to drive a turbo-generator. Successful demonstration led to the development of first generation zero-emission power plants (ZEPP). Fabrication and preliminary testing of 1st generation ZEPP equipment has been completed at Kimberlina power plant (KPP) including two main system components, a large combustor (170MWth) and a modified aeroderivative turbine (GE J79 turbine). Also, a reheat combustion system is being designed to improve plant efficiency. This will incorporate the combustion cans from the J79 engine, modified to accept the system’s steam/CO2 working fluid. A single-can reheat combustor has been designed and tested to verify the viability and performance of an O-F reheater can. After several successful tests of the 1st generation equipment, development started on 2nd generation power plant systems. In this program, a Siemens SGT-900 gas turbine engine will be modified and utilized in a 200MWe power plant. Like the 1st generation system, the expander section of the engine will be used as an advanced intermediate pressure turbine and the can-annular combustor will be modified into a O-F reheat combustor. Design studies are being performed to define the modifications necessary to adapt the hardware to the thermal and structural demands of a steam/CO2 drive gas including testing to characterize the materials behavior when exposed to the deleterious working environment. The results and challenges of 1st and 2nd generation oxy-fuel power plant system development are presented.
This paper describes a large scale heat flux instrumentation effort for the AFRL HIT Research Turbine. The work provides a unique amount of high frequency instrumentation to acquire fast response unsteady heat flux in a fully rotational, cooled turbine rig along with unsteady pressure data to investigate thermal loading and unsteady aerodynamic airfoil interactions. Over 1200 dynamic sensors are installed on the 1 & 1/2 stage turbine rig. Airfoils include 658 double-sided thin film gauges for heat flux, 289 fast-response Kulite pressure sensors for unsteady aerodynamic measurements, and over 40 thermocouples. An overview of the instrumentation is given with in-depth focus on the non-commercial thin film heat transfer sensors designed and produced in the Heat Flux Instrumentation Laboratory at WPAFB. The paper further describes the necessary upgrade of data acquisition systems and signal conditioning electronics to handle the increased channel requirements of the HIT Research Turbine. More modern, reliable, and efficient data processing and analysis code provides better handling of large data sets and allows easy integration with the turbine design and analysis system under development at AFRL. Example data from cooled transient blowdown tests in the TRF are included along with measurement uncertainty.
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