Advanced Combustion System for Next Generation Gas Turbine
DE- FC26-01NT41020

Next-generation gas turbines will operate at higher pressure ratios and hotter turbine inlet temperatures – conditions that will tend to increase nitrogen oxide emissions. To conform to future air quality requirements, lower-emitting combustion technology will be required.

In October 2000, General Electric was selected to develop a prototype combustor that will reduce smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions well below current systems. The goal is to cut emissions by 50 percent or more compared to state-of-the-art lean premixed gas turbine combustors. Currently General Electric's dry low-NOx combustion technology, which the company pioneered in the early 1990s, has been installed on more than 250 gas turbines. The most advanced dry low-NOx designs reduce nitrogen oxide emissions to less than 10 parts per million (on a dry, 15 percent oxygen basis).

General Electric researchers will evaluate several combustor concepts at small scales and use them to refine computer models and generate a design database. From this data, prototype combustors, employing new designs, will be built and evaluated over a variety of conditions. The best design will be selected for full-scale design evaluation.