Analysis of Efficiency upon Enhancing the Fuel Combustion Completeness in the GTU Burners Using Fuel Gas Heating up
One main characteristic of the gas turbine unit (GTU) burner is its fuel combustion completeness, which affects directly the efficiency of the power plant along with CO and unburnt hydrocarbons C<sub>n</sub>H<sub>m</sub> emissions. The aim of this work was the research on the application of the fuel heating-up as an alternative method for increasing the fuel combustion completeness and controlling the emission of harmful agents. This goal is achieved by obtaining experimental data on the emissions of CO and NO<sub>x</sub> at different temperatures of the fuel gas supply to the combustion chamber. The most significant result of the work is the experimentally confirmed possibility of increasing the combustion efficiency (decreasing CO) by heating the fuel gas while maintaining constant gas-dynamic characteristics of the chamber. The significance of the results obtained consists in the experimental confirmation of the combustion quality control only by heating the fuel gas without changing the operating and design characteristics of the combustion chamber. The fuel combustion low completeness can cause the burner unstable operation in the form of the unsteady pre-blowout burning combined with the pressure oscillations in the burner. At present, methods for ensuring the increase in stability and completeness of the fuel combustion are related to the air rate and temperature changes at the inlet. However, the use of these methods can be unwanted because of their causing the decrease in the coefficient of efficiency and in the resource of the ‘hot part’ of the gas-turbine facility.