Session: 08-01: Gas Turbine Research and Developments

Paper Number: 153315

Development of a Full Scale Retrofittable Ammonia Combustor for Can Annular Frame Engine Implementation 

Low carbon and renewable fuels are an active area of research due to their potential to reduce both stack and life-cycle carbon emissions.  Ammonia is one such fuel as it has storage, production, infrastructure, and zero carbon emissions advantages over other fuels.  Its challenges include its toxicity, its combustion characteristics, and its pollutant emissions.

The authors have begun development of an ammonia combustor design.  The intent of the design is a can annular combustor retrofittable to gas turbines in use today.  The combustor design is based on technology the research team has been investigating.  The Rich Relax Quench Lean (RRQL) combustor is shown by the authors to reduce NOx emissions to levels similar to that of natural gas based on initial scaled testing at atmospheric pressure.  Modeling efforts indicate further NOx reduction potential at elevated pressure.  Scaled testing has shown great promise in NOx emissions, flame stability, fuel flexibility with blends of natural gas, and ignition capability.  The authors have designed a full scale combustor similar to the scaled combustor.  The full scale combustor is expected to be tested in 2025.  This details the conceptual design of the scaled combustor and its test results.  This paper also discusses the full scale combustor development, testing, results, and future plans.

Presenting Author: Benjamin Emerson Georgia Institute of Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Emerson is a Principal Research Engineer in the Ben T. Zinn Combustion Lab at Georgia Tech. Dr. Emerson's work at Georgia Tech includes fundamental combustion research and development of clean energy technologies for aviation and power generation.

Authors:

Benjamin Emerson Georgia Institute of Technology
David Wu Georgia Institute of Technology
Cristian D. Avila Jimenez Georgia Institute of Technology
Renee Cole Georgia Institute of Technology
Jung-Keuk Park KEPCO Research Institute in Power Generation Laboratory
Sanghyup Lee KEPCO Research Institute in Power Generation Laboratory
James Harper EPRI
David Noble EPRI