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Dry Low NOx Combustion Systems

Development and Operating Experience

Torsten Strand
Senior Gas Turbine Specialist
ABB STAL, R&D Dept El III 1 1111 lip 111 111
S-612 82 Finspong
Sweden

ABSTRACT
It is shown that emissions are becoming significant
performance parameters. Dry Low NOx combustion
is favourably evaluated in terms of fuel consumption
when compared to NOx abatement with water
Injection or SCR.
The conversion of two industrial gas turbines to Dry
Low NOx (DLN) Combustion summarised.
Four years experience of commissioning and
operation of a number of DLN gas turbines is
described.
Emission levels around 25 ppmv NOx on gas has
been achieved. Operation on natural gas is generally
very reliable, but some initial problems were
encountered.
Emission measurements and especially continuos
emission monitoring have proved to be unreliable
and caused a lot of trouble during the
commissioning of some plants.
INTRODUCTION
From an environmental point of view, when designing a
thermal power plant, there are three main areas to consider
• effective use of the fuel
• choice of fuel
• emissions (exhaust gases and noise)
ABB has therefore developed
• cogeneration and combined cycle plants, in which
fuel is utilised to 85 - 95 %
• natural gas fired gas turbine combustion systems with high
efficiency and low emissions
development route has been directed to Dry Low NOx
Combustion systems with a 25 ppmv NOx target.
In 1991 such a system was introduced on a GTIO based
combined cycle plant in Sweden, which became the reference
plant for a whole series of low emission combined cycle
plants in Europe.
The development processes, introduction and operation
experiences of these combustion systems will be highlighted.
Emission Regulations & Guarantees
Regulations on or taxations of NOx emissions from power
plants are becoming common all over the world. The general
target levels are in the range of 25-50 ppmv NOx in the
exhaust gas. The "best available technology at reasonable
cost" philosophy has become the base for regulations in many
countries, which has made emissions an important or even the
most important purchasing parameter. NOx taxation of
course has made emissions an operating cost parameter
comparable to fuel consumption.
Generally the emission regulations have come earlier to the
power generation sector than in the gas transmission area.
However, for pipe line compressor sets in Europe and North
America there are today requirements for 'emission levels
comparable to those of power plants.
For marine propulsion the allowed NOx levels are still high,
the adjusted to the emission capability of the diesel engine.
Special port and route emission fees are introduced in the US
and Scandinavia, turning emissions into a cost factor, which
will increase the interest for low emission systems.

CO emission regulations are not as frequent as for NOx, but in

Originally the ABB STAL 25MW GTIO and 17MW GT35
Germany and the US there are limits of around 100 ppmv.
gas turbines were equipped with conventional dual fuel
combustion systems, producing fairly high nitric oxide CO2 taxation is presently debated by the European Union
emissions. Commission. Taxation is practised in Sweden and Norway.
In the mid 1980's these systems were modified for NOx
The formulation of emission guarantees varies quite a lot from
reduction by water or steam injection. From 1988 the main
country to country and site to site, from the simplest

Presented at the International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress & Exhibition
Birmingham,
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 <x ppmv, mg/MJ or mg/Nrn 3 at the nominal operating point
measured at the performance verification test only, to the most Gas 9aner616, Cambusben chambers
013 Nu
pH, Iv
complex T 725
—16

<x kg/year and Cy mg/Nm3 momentarily

in combination, requiring continuous emission monitoring.
12.5 MAU 2-pek
30301000 rpm AC Generator
NOx formation and reduction
5010 rpm TOlOrp,
Gas turbine combustion on gas and low sulphur liquid fuels
HP HP LP
produces basically only carbon dioxide and water vapour. Compnossors Turbines
Power
turbine
The Nitric Oxides in the exhaust gases are produced by the
oxidation of the nitrogen in the combustion air or the organic Fig.la. Schematic view of GT35
nitrogen in the fuel, when passing the high temperature zones
in the combustor, producing
- in flame NOx
- post flame NOx
Since the production rate of NOx is exponentially Itt
59 'A
proportional to temperature, the obvious way to control NOx 770IY1500 rpm
77.7kpli
is to reduce the temperature in the flame and limit the It On
206
Mal= rpm

residence time in the combustor. 24.6 LIW

O COn012 DAP
The conventional method to do that was to inject water or
steam into the combustor. This is however coupled to
economical losses, since the water and the steam latent energy
(2-3 MW for 20 MW turbines) are lost with the exhaust gases.
The next alternative was to clean up the exhaust gases in a 10 • IAA
ails COMplasor
2 Nage
CONXIISSOr lurbIn6
2 MIS
POPS harbint
catalytic exhaust reactor, in which the NOx molecules react
with injected ammonia to form nitrogen and water. Also this Fig.1 a. Schematic view of GT10
method is rather costly, due to high investment costs, catalyst
and ammonia consumption.
The ultimate "reasonable cost" way is to modify the The combustion systems are quite different
combustion process to "low temperature combustion". GT35 GTIO
combustor type 7 cans annular
no of burners 21 18
Dry Low NOx Combustion However, the lean premix burners are of the same type and
A few different ways to design the combustion process for size.
low flame temperature and very low NOx production have The first GTIO units with Dry Low NOx combustors based on
been tried. The Lean Premix Prevaporisation (LPP) the Lean Premix technology went into commercial operation
technology has become dominating, now common in in 199 1 at two Swedish combined cycle and cogen plants. A
industrial gas turbines. number of GT10 units have since then been installed for a
NOx values in the range of 4 to 7 ppmv can theoretically be wide range of industrial and municipal applications.
achieved for modern high temperature gas turbines with the The first GT35 with dry low NOx combustors started
lean premix burning methods. So far values in the range of 15 operation at a German cogen plant in 1994.
- 25 ppmv have been reported for regular field operation.

THE ABB STAL GT35 and GT10 LIGHT INDUSTRIAL Dry Low NOx Combustor Development Targets
GAS TURBINES In retrofitting DLN combustors to the GT35 and GTIO
turbines the targets were
The GT35 is a three shaft and GT10 a two shaft gas turbine * NOx on natural gas, dry 25 ppmv
with the nominal performances described in the figures * NOx on oil with water injection 42 ppmv
below. * combustion efficiency > 99.9 %
* no major changes to existing turbine geometry

2
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 in combination with all the conventional combustor load. Some sort of combustion control at part load is
requirements, such as required.
• turbine inlet temperature profile better than before The low flame temperature combustion requires a mixing of.
• combustor pressure drop as before air and fuel in a homogeneous way upstream of the flame.
• fuel change over capability on load After mixing, the medium is explosive and auto ignition or
• full "load drop" capability flash back can occur if conditions (temperature, velocity and
• design life > 40000 hit turbulence) are right
the risk for flash back puts special requirements on the
Lean Premix Combustion Fundamentals burner design.
The two most important emission relations are illustrated in
fig 2. NOx and CO production are functions of flame CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY
temperature, residence time and to some extent-combustor Thus there are three main areas for technology decisions
pressure. • burner
• combustion chamber
• part load combustion efficiency control method

EV-bumer
For the lean premix burners, which is the key component,
there was an obvious choice since the ABB patented EV
burner was already experimentally proven in advanced
laboratory tests at ABB Corporate Research in Baden,
Switzerland, fig 3.

SOD 2 000
AdaDatc flame temporaturo • degree K

Fig 2: Typical NOx and CO production in premix

combustion versus adiabatic flame temperature.

The levels of the NOx and CO curves are dependent on burner

and combustor design
• the better the air/fuel mixing in the burner the lower the Fig.3 The EV Burner
NOx level
• the higher the combustor wall temperature the lower the The EV burner fulfils the above mentioned requirements
CO • mixes air and fuel gas in a homogeneous way
There is apparently a limited flame temperature span in • has a high swirling flow velocity preventing pre-ignition
which low NOx values can be reached with good • has a simple and clean design so that no flash back
combustion efficiency and acceptable CO. conditions can exist
Most gas turbine operating characteristics are such that with • produces a natural recirculation with a vortex break down
increasing load zone that serves as a flame stabiliser
• Adiabatic Flame Temperature increases
• Combustor pressure increases Combustion Chamber
• Air inlet temperature increases In a retrofit situation it is obvious, that using the existing basic
combustion chamber design will be the most straight
The obvious conclusion is that if the combustor is designed forward way. In the 0110 case that means an annular, film
for a full load Adiabatic Flame Temperature of e.g. 1750K in cooled, sheet metal combustor with eighteen burners, fig 4.
order to reach 25 ppmv The air distribution will however be drastically different
it is possible to stay at low NOx values over the load from the old design
range, but combustion efficiency will be a problem at part - 60% of the combustion air is going through the flame
zone instead of 32% for the old design

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 - less wall cooling is needed due to the low radiation from
the cold, light blue premix flame
Fig 4. The 0110 Low NOx combustor.
For 0T35 a somewhat shortened version of the can combustor
was chosen, but with three burners instead of one.
Fig.5 0T35 Combustor with 3 EV burners
Combustion Control
For the part load combustion control several different ways
were contemplated and a few tested. Initially, the thought was
that there were two methods to assure full CO burn out at part
load
* to keep the flame temperature at high enough level
* to modify the flame from premix to diffusion type
Today it is recognised that the only working method to avoid
CO is the first one. However a pilot flame of diffusion type
may anyway be required at start up and low load operation,
since the combustor is operated below the blow out limit of
the premix flame.
For single shaft turbines the flame temperature can be kept
constant over a reasonable load range by controlling the air
flow with the compressor variable inlet guide vanes.
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In two and three shaft turbines, variation of the inlet guide
vane setting will not reduce the air flow, only change the gas
generator rotor speed.
In turbines with annular combustors with one row of
burners, shutting off some burners will produce an uneven
temperature pattern, which can only be tolerated at low load.
The solutions pursued for the ABB STAL turbines were
1) external pilot burners of EV type, always running at
high Fuel Air Ratio
2) integral pilot burner in the cone
3) variable dilution air
4) burner shut off at part load
The GT35 and GTIO DLN combustors were designed with a
combination of the second and fourth methods, but GTIO
was after the first seasons experiences modified to a
combination of the second and third methods (see below).
The fuel system of the GTIO conventional combustor
was kept fairly unchanged, but an extra gas fuel distributing
ring and control valve for the pilot gas was added.
In the ABB Master control system a "NOx card" was
included for controlling the fuel split between the pilot
and main gas nozzles. The split is basically load dependent,
but for optimisation also ambient conditions (pressure,
temperature and humidity) and gas quality have to be
considered.
In spite of the fact that at full load the combustor is operating
in full premix mode without pilot fuel, it proved to be possible
to perform a sudden load shedding operation without losing
the flame.
DESIGN PROCEDURE
Since the components for the GT35 and 0110 design were
fairly well known, the computational phases were rather
short. The main efforts were concentrated on experimental
verification programs, comprising
- single burner atmospheric and pressure tests
- atmospheric full scale combustor tests
- four burner sector pressure tests (GTIO)
- engine testing
Engine Testing
Three Swedish GTIO plants with Low NOx Combustion were
put into commercial operation in December 1991
* a Combined Cycle Plant for City of Angelholm
* a Cogeneration Plant for City of Lund
* a Combined Cycle Plant for City of Karlskoga
operating on LPG
All the plants are producing electricity and hot water for
municipal district heating during the heating season
(November to April). The first two plants were installed with
 DLN Combustors. The -third initially had a conventional
combustor with steam injection, which in 1995 was changed
fo DLN combustion.
Especially the Angelholm plant was an excellent and very
valuable component test facility since the fuel system had
maximal requirements:
• standard fuel: North Sea gas
• reserve fuel: gas oil with water injection
• requirement for full load fuel change over
• operation at part load in the spring and the fall due to low
heat load
By arrangement with the customer, access to the turbine was
guaranteed at the beginning and the end of the operating
seasons for checking
- component wear
- tests of modifications
FIRST SEASON OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Lund and Angelholin plants went into commercial
operation in Dec-9I, and ran uninterrupted on gas until April
1992, when the heating season ended. The first season
experience can be summarised
• the emission values at full load operation were generally
good
- NOx 25-30 ppmv
- CO 30-40 ppmv at full load
• a potential for lower values than actually produced was
shown during the commissioning. The fine tuning of the
NOx card for ambient condition variations turned out to be
somewhat more complicated than expected, resulting in
higher values at certain "off design" conditions.
• the part load CO values were not reduced by the pilot
burner in the same strong way as expected from the
combustor tests.
The part load operation strategy had to be reconsidered.
• the combustor wall temperatures were generally lower than
the design target, in the range of 650 to 750°C, on natural
gas. On diesel oil with water injection similar values were
recorded, while around 80°C higher temperatures were seen
when operating on heating oil without water injection.
• at the inspection after the first season it was discovered, in
spite of the on average low wall temperatures, that the
combustor outer wall had small buckles in nine streaks
between the boldts supporting the combustor.
The film cooling of the outer wall had to be slightly
increased.
• operation on oil caused some trouble at the Lund site
(running on heating oil):
- starting problems due to very slow cross
ignition between the burners
- coking of oil mist in the gas fuel injection passages
5
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• the Lund oil problems were not found at the Angelholm
site, where the oil quality is of motor diesel type and water
injection is used.
After the introduction of purging of the gas manifolds
with compressor air, the ignition became excellent and
coking was prevented.
Different modes of operation were tested without any
problems for example
- fuel change over from gas to oil and back
- mixed fuel operation
- sudden load drop
- water injection on oil for NOx reduction to 25 ppmv
- water injection on gas for further reduction of NOx to
<15 ppmv
New Combustion Part Load Control Strategy
After the first season it was clear that the part load
combustion efficiency was lower than expected from the
combustor tests. It was than decided to change control
strategy and introduce a burner bypass arrangement, by which
the flame temperature and the bum out could be kept at an
acceptable level down to 60 % load.
The bypass arrangement consists of six valves mounted on the
turbine casing close to the combustor down stream end. At
part load the valves open to let compressor air flow in to the
combustor, thus reducing the flow through the burners, fig.6.
The bypass arrangement was successfully tested on the
Angelholm unit in 1993 and then introduced on all following
units. For some units, always running at full load, it has
however not been put into operation.
On the first units the bypass valves are individually controlled
by pneumatic 'motors, but in the final arrangement they are
operated by one AC motor.
Fig. 6. Combustor bypass arrangement with valves closed and
open
 Continued Operating Experience There have in some cases been a dispute of what is included
With several plants in operation for a total of more than in the guaranteed figures
150000hrs, the experiences gained can be summarised as - the real gas turbine emissions or
follows: - the recorded figures of the (inaccurate) monitoring system
Integrity
Emission Results The GTIO combustor wall cooling has come out very well. ,
After the introduction of the bypass system on the GTI 0 unit The outer wall seemed however already after the first season
the emission results on several units has been recorded and of operation to have a somewhat too small margin to local
summarised in fig. 7. overheating. Even after a slight cooling flow modification,
The results show that the GTIO is capable to produce spot wise overheatings due to occasional flame distortions
• NOx values in the range of 17-22 ppmv at full load have appeared. After applying a thin thermal barrier coating,
during performance test conditions the 40000 hrs design life will however be reached.
• NOx values <25 ppmv during continuous operation in The GT35 combustors are very robust and will easily reach
the 60-100% load range design life. A redesign of the fuel piping due to vibration
• CO values < 40 ppmv at full load and <100 ppmv in the problems had to be made after the first engine tests.
65-100% load range
Functionality
The operation of the 0T35 and GTI 0 units have not changed
by the introduction of the dry low NOx combustion systems.
50
At commissioning there is of course one new task, the
45-
40-
emission tuning, which in the beginning required special
35-
personnel at site. Now it usually is handled by the regular
> 30- commissioning crew together with a local emission
a. 25- ........................ measurement consultant.
20- ............ The GTI 0 variable dilution air control valves were for some
15- time a weak point, since the air motors used to drive the
10- valves were sensitive to the combination of compressed air
5- quality and hot environment. A one motor link system, similar
0 to the compressor IGV control, has now replaced the original
i
so 55 60 65 70 75
1 80 85
1 90 95 100 individual motor system.
Load (%)
The GT35 part load control system still has potential for
Fig. 7. Emission results from GT1 0 measurements on natural further fine tuning by optimising burner staging and pilot fuel
gas operation.

In combination with a slight amount of water injection, the

NOx level on natural gas has been brought down below 15
ppmv at the MIT, Cambridge, MA. plant. 10000
o4
0
1000 14 burners
In
CO
Emission Measurements & Monitoring 21 burners 21 burners +
2 100
...... 7211ots
On some of the plants with stringent emission requirements ..........
• ......
and compulsory emission monitoring it has been a problem to a. 10
a .

fine tune the emission control systems.

In all cases it has been found that the problem can be related 12 16
10 14
not to the gas turbine but to the measuring system. Reliable Load, MW
emission monitoring instrumentation is still hard to find. Most
problems have however been related to systems including Fig 8. GT35 Emission performance
stack exhaust flow measurements, where the measurement
accuracy has been too low. The start up procedures have become somewhat more
Also in systems including gas fuel flow measurements there sensitive than with the conventional combustors, since the
have been problems with the accuracy. combustion is getting very lean during the run up to idle
condition. Compensation for fuel gas pressure and engine

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 temperature on ignition fuel flow rate has been introduced on
some units.
Flame detection has required somewhat more sensitive UV/IR
detectors due to the low radiation from the premix flames.
Various Low Tech Problems
In most of the cases when combustion disturbances have been
encountered the problems have been of the "low tech" type
- dirt or gasket pieces blocking fuel supply
- stuck non return valves (water injection system)
- dirty flame detection lenses
- lack of lubricating oil in instrument air (bypass valves)
Carbon pieces from carbon plated steel gaskets, getting into
the gas fuel system, have caused local overheating of several
combustors.
Complexity
CONCLUSIONS
Due to the fact that basically known technology was used
and fairly small deviations from existing design were made, a
very short development time was needed to introduce
rather successful Dry Low NOx Combustors on the GTIO and
GT35 gas turbines.
The additional complexity of the fuel systems is limited, and
the additional requirements on the control system minor.
Emission monitoring system reliability has been a problem at
commissioning due to lack in accuracy and system stability.
Operating records on the combustion systems are so far very
good concerning emissions, reliability and availability. Only a
few initial problems had to be addressed.
The operation experience since 1991 has provided a good
base for the future improvements of the DLN systems. The
next development targets are "single digit NOx" on gas and
dry low NOx operation on liquid fuels.
*

The dry low NOx systems used on the 0T35 and GTIO have
combustors very similar to the conventional ones. The EV REFERENCES
burners are basically simpler than the conventional fuel
injectors. However, the fuel supply systems have become Hellat et al: Dual Burner
somewhat more complex US Patent No 4781030 Nov.I .1988
- one extra fuel control valve and fuel distribution manifold Jeffs, Eric: Environmentally Effective Gas Turbine
for the pilot fuel (GT35 and GTIO) Turbomachinery International
- two extra fuel valves and fuel distribution manifolds for the Jan/Feb. 1992
burner staging (0T35) Strand, Torsten: Retrofitting a Dry Low Emission
On GTI 0 there is also the motor for by pass valve operation. Combustors to a Twin Shaft Gas
The extra equipment of the control system is restricted to an Turbines
extra "NOx card" in the Master Control system. CIMAC GT-013, 1993

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