Air-fuel micromix injector having multibank ports for adaptive cooling of high temperature combustor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11384939-B2
Application number	US-201414257847-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2014
Priority date	Apr 21, 2014
Publication date	Jul 12, 2022
Grant date	Jul 12, 2022

Abstract

A method of using a combustor for high temperature combustion. The combustor is equipped with a showerhead type micromix air-fuel injector. The injector faceplate has its ports concentrically arranged into “banks”, to which delivery of fuel can be controlled on a bank-by-bank basis. During combustor operation, the temperature of the air into the combustor is monitored. If the temperature is above a predetermined threshold, fuel is delivered to fewer than all banks of ports. As a result, the bank(s) of ports to which fuel is not delivered inject only air into the combustion chamber, and the other bank(s) of ports inject the air-fuel mixture as usual.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of providing high temperature intake air to a gas turbine power plant, using a combustor for high inlet temperature combustion, comprising:
using a compressor to pressurize air;
using a solar receiver to receive all of the pressurized air from the compressor and to heat the pressurized air with sunlight;
delivering the output of the solar receiver to a combustor;
wherein the combustor has an outer casing, a micro-mix injector and a combustion chamber with an inner wall,
wherein the outer casing has an inlet port at an upstream end that receives the output of the solar receiver and thereby receives all air into the combustor, and further has an output port at a downstream end for outputting an exhaust product of combustion;
wherein the micro-mix injector has a faceplate and a backplate with air passages running from the backplate to the faceplate, the air passages configured as having at least two concentrically arranged banks of ports at the faceplate, with two of the banks being an inner bank of ports and an outer bank of ports, each port operable to deliver an air-fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, and the outer bank of ports arranged to direct air or air-fuel mix along the inner wall;
wherein each bank of ports has at least one associated fuel line that delivers fuel into the air passages, such that air and fuel are mixed between the faceplate and the backplate and the ports deliver an air-fuel mixture into the combustion chamber;
wherein the micro-mix injector and the combustion chamber aligned within the casing, with the micro-mix injector in-line with and upstream of the combustion chamber on an axis;
wherein the combustor is configured such that during operation of the combustor all airflow into the combustor enters the combustor upstream of the micro-mix injector and then through the micro-mix injector and then through the combustion chamber from upstream to downstream in a single direction along the axis and such that all flow of air and/or combustion product exiting the micro-mix injector is from the faceplate in a direction parallel to the inner wall;
determining an inlet temperature threshold; and
during operation of the combustor: determining the inlet temperature of the air into the inlet port of the combustor; and if the temperature is above the inlet temperature threshold, delivering fuel to only the inner bank of ports, such that only air enters the combustion chamber from the outer bank of ports and flows along an outer circumference of the inner wall and the air-fuel mixture enters the combustion chamber from the inner bank of ports.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the combustion chamber has refractory inserts for cooling.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the faceplate further has a central port for a pilot flame.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the faceplate further has at least one bridge port to connect pairs of banks.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delivering step is performed incrementally as the inlet temperature of the combustor rises.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wall of the combustor is a combustor liner.

7. A combustor system for receiving solar-heated air from a solar receiver and for providing exhaust gas products for driving a gas turbine of a power generator, comprising:
a combustor that combusts an air-fuel mixture, and having: an outer casing. a micro-mix injector, and a combustion chamber with an inner wall;
wherein the outer casing has an inlet port at an upstream end that receives the output of the solar receiver and thereby receives all air into the combustor and further has an output port at a downstream end for outputting an exhaust product of combustion;
wherein the micro-mix injector has a faceplate and a backplate with air passages running from the backplate to the faceplate, the air passages configured as having at least two concentrically arranged banks of ports at the faceplate, with two of the banks being an inner bank of ports and an outer bank of ports, each port operable to deliver an air-fuel mixture into the combustion chamber;
wherein each bank of ports has at least one associated fuel line that delivers fuel into the air passages, such that air and fuel are mixed between the faceplate and the backplate and the ports deliver an air-fuel mixture into the combustion chamber;
wherein the micro-mix injector and the combustion chamber are aligned within the casing, with the micro-mix injector in-line with and in front of the combustion chamber on an axis;
wherein the combustor is configured such that during operation of the combustor, all airflow into the combustor enters the combustor upstream of the micro-mix injector via the inlet port and then all airflow within the combustor flows first through the micro-mix injector and then through the combustion chamber in a single direction along the axis and such that all flow of air and/or combustion product exiting the micro-mix injector is from the faceplate in a direction parallel to the inner wall;
means for delivery of fuel to the injector, operable to turn fuel delivery on or off to the banks of ports;
an igniter for igniting the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber; and
a control unit operable to store data representing an inlet temperature threshold, to receive temperature data representing the temperature of the combustion air at the input to the combustor and to turn fuel delivery on or off, on a bank-by-bank basis, in response to the temperature data, and to turn off fuel delivery to the outer bank of ports when the temperature of the combustion air at the input to the combustor exceeds the inlet temperature threshold.

8. The combustor of claim 7 , wherein the combustion chamber has refractory inserts for cooling.

9. The combustor of claim 7 , wherein the faceplate further has a central port for a pilot flame.

10. The combustor of claim 7 , wherein the faceplate further has at least one bridge port to connect pairs of banks.

11. The combustor of claim 7 , wherein the injector has more than two banks, and the delivering step is performed incrementally as the inlet temperature of the combustor rises.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the wall of the combustor is a liner.

Assignees

• Southwest Res Inst

Inventors

• Coogan Shane B
• Brun Klaus

Classifications

• F23L2900/15044

  Preheating combustion air by heat recovery means using solar or other clean energy · CPC title

• F23R3/16

  with devices inside the flame tube or the combustion chamber to influence the air or gas flow · CPC title

• Y02E10/46

  Conversion of thermal power into mechanical power, e.g. Rankine, Stirling or solar thermal engines · CPC title

• F03G6/064

  having a gas turbine cycle, i.e. compressor and gas turbine combination · CPC title

• F03G6/04

  gaseous {(F03G6/064, F03G6/068 take precedence)} · CPC title