Water Injection into Navy Gas-Turbine Combustors to Reduce NOx Emissions
Abstract
Land-based water injection into the combustor of gas turbines is a state-of-the-art technology, which is a low-risk, low-cost option for reduction of gas-turbine emissions. A controller for a water-injected combustor (WIC) system was designed for automatic control of water injection. Steady-state tests of the WIC system in an LM2500 propulsion-engine facility yielded basic engine-interactive data for the WIC's unique automatic software logic. The steady-state tests demonstrated anticipated NOx reductions in conformity with proposed (but not implemented) California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandates. The controller automatically compensates for the effects of humidity, temperature and engine load. This automatic response was expressly designed to deliver acceptable water rates even during the abrupt power excursions encountered in emergencies, including collision-avoidance crashback maneuvers. The transient test data indicated unacceptable flameout in the engine during engine deceleration to idle speed. Detailed analyses of the flameouts show that the controller can reduce water flow within two deciseconds of a change in power demand. However, the residence time of water in the manifolds can be about a second for some operating conditions. Several fixes for this problem are described.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA363219
Entities
People
- Balfour L. Wallace
- Donald T. Knauss
- Herman B. Urbach
- John Emory
- John Frese
Organizations
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division