Challenges with using Hydrogen Fuel in Gas Turbine Combustor
Land based power generation gas turbines are subject to stringent emissions regulations. Recently, decarbonization has become a buzz word meaning elimination/reduction carbon based fuels in energy sector. The use of hydrogen as a fuel in gas turbines is seen as a possible path forward. However, there are numerous technical hurdles in combustion of hydrogen to overcome such as:
1. High flame temperature
2. Flammability and flashback
3. Low ignition energy
4. NOx emissions
Engineering Solution
Each one of issues highlighted require research and development to understand how to control the hydrogen combustion. There is a lot experience in natural gas combustion in the gas turbine industry. A common approach is to blend more and more hydrogen to natural gas, and modify the existing combustor parts to accommodate higher flame speeds and wider flammability range of hydrogen. Designers need to ensure that the flame is properly anchored and relatively stable. These challenges call for low cost analytical/numerical models as well as expensive lab tests.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods are the most common physics based approaches to model the highly complex, reacting turbulent flow field present in Combustors. Gas turbine industry has recently started to heavily use CFD tools for prediction of hydrogen combustion.
Ansys Solution Benefits
The Ansys CFD team has been working with industry and evaluating different combustion modeling methodologies. They are developing new models and best practices to simulate reacting flow systems based on hydrogen and hydrogen-blended fuels. Some of the studies have already been published in open literature in the last couple of years.
The users of Fluent enjoy the following benefits:
1. Better insights of combustion characteristics of hydrogen-blended fuels at different engine operating conditions.
2. Optimize engine design to maintain higher thermal efficiency and lower NOx emissions.
Fig. 1 Cabra hydrogen-air lifted flame prediction
Ozen Engineering Expertise
We offer support, mentoring, and consulting services to enhance the performance and reliability of your hydraulic systems. Trust our proven track record to accelerate projects, optimize performance, and deliver high-quality, cost-effective results for both new and existing water control systems. For more information, please visit https://ozeninc.com.
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