Chairman

Rob Bastiaans, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Vision

To have gas turbines capable of operating in an efficient, safe and reliable manner utilising a wide range of fuels whilst minimising polluting emissions such as NOx and aiming at zero CO2 emissions.

Background

Gas turbines form a significant proportion of global power generation. All aspects of gas turbine technologies are being progressed in order to improve their performance. Fuel flexibility is one such aspect; widespread gas pipeline interconnectivity and LNG imports are leading to varying gas quality, and alternative fuels usage (for example biofuel and syngas) is becoming a commercial necessity. Gas turbine equipment will be required to operate in this new environment with minimal hardware or controls changes required to accommodate the foreseen range of fuels. Their operation will need to have ever improved life, reliability and availability in order to remain competitive with other power generation technologies. Additionally, the push towards lower carbon emissions whilst maintaining, and lowering further, other pollutant emissions (NOx, SOx, smoke, PAH etc) requires the development of novel fuel usage technologies for these gas turbines.

Research Areas

The main issues of any project work will cover:

• Development of gas quality detection and automatic combustion system adjustments to enable continuous, low emissions, high efficiency power generation
• CFD modelling of combustion systems to provide understanding of acoustic vibration modes etc.
• Detailed combustion process research (flame propagation etc)
• New combustion concept development, incl. catalytic combustion, flameless oxidation, indirect firing
• Combustion system development to utilise broader Wobbe Index range fuels, incl. any LNG fuel implications
• Increased operational range below current emissions levels
• Use of biomass derived fuels (liquid and gas) and coal derived syngas, as these will be more commonplace and available on reasonably large scales - especially in non EU areas
• Move towards all combustion processes to be in 'zero (CO2) emissions' environment, i.e. carbon capture and storage technologies to be implemented
• Diluted H2 fuels usage, with technologies leading to 100% H2 combustion (in association with carbon capture and storage)