System and method for controlled fuel blending in gas turbines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9382850-B2
Application number	US-201313848500-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2013
Priority date	Mar 21, 2013
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

A system includes a gas turbine engine having a combustor, and a fuel blending system. The fuel blending system further includes a first fuel supply configured to supply a first fuel, a second fuel supply configured to supply a second fuel, a first fuel circuit, a second fuel circuit, and a controller. The first fuel circuit may be configured to blend the first fuel and the second fuel to form a first to form a first fuel mixture. The second fuel circuit may be configured to blend the first fuel and the second fuel to form a second fuel mixture. The controller may be configured to regulate blending of the first fuel mixture and the second fuel mixture based on a measured operating parameter of the combustor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a gas turbine engine comprising a combustor; and
a fuel blending system, comprising:
a first fuel supply configured to supply a first fuel;
a second fuel supply configured to supply a second fuel;
a first fuel circuit configured to blend the first fuel and the second fuel to form a first fuel mixture, wherein the first fuel mixture has a first blending ratio of the first and second fuels;
a second fuel circuit configured to blend the first fuel and the second fuel to form a second fuel mixture, wherein the second fuel mixture has a second blending ratio of the first and second fuels; and
a controller configured to regulate blending of the first fuel mixture and blending of the second fuel mixture simultaneously, wherein the controller is configured to regulate blending based on a measured operating parameter of the combustor, and wherein the controller is configured to simultaneously regulate the blending of the first blending ratio to be different from the blending of the second blending ratio.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel comprises a process gas and the second fuel comprises a natural gas, wherein the process gas comprises a coke oven gas, a blast furnace gas, a refinery flue gas, a synthetic gas generated as a result of a refinery or chemical process, or a combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to regulate blending of the first fuel mixture and the second fuel mixture based on a measured composition of the first fuel and/or the second fuel.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measured operating parameter comprises a combustion dynamics parameter, a combustor tone frequency, a combustor tone amplitude, a combustor flame intensity, a pulsation or an oscillation in pressure, temperature, flame intensity, light intensity, noise, and emissions levels, or a combination thereof.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gas turbine system comprises a flame detector configured to measure a flame intensity of a flame in the combustor, and the controller is configured to receive feedback from the flame detector.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the fuel blending system comprises memory configured to store the measured operating parameters of the combustor, and desired blending ratios of the first fuel mixture and the second fuel mixture.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel circuit is configured to supply the first fuel mixture to a primary fuel nozzle of the combustor, and the second fuel circuit is configured to supply the second fuel mixture to a secondary fuel nozzle of the combustor.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to regulate blending of the first fuel mixture and the second fuel mixture based on a maximum allowable concentration of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, or oxygen in the first fuel or combustion products of the combustor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gas turbine engine is set to a pre-mixing mode of operation, a primary mode of operation, a secondary mode of operation, a full load mode of operation, a part load mode of operation, or a combination thereof.

10. A system, comprising:
a fuel blending system, comprising:
a first fuel circuit configured to supply a first fuel mixture of a first fuel and a second fuel to a primary fuel nozzle of a turbine combustor;
a second fuel circuit configured to supply a second fuel mixture of the first fuel and the second fuel to a secondary fuel nozzle of the turbine combustor; and
a controller configured to simultaneously regulate a first blending ratio of the first fuel mixture to be different from a second blending ratio of the second fuel mixture, wherein the controller is configured to simultaneously regulate blending of the first and second fuel mixtures based on a measured operating parameter of the turbine combustor, and wherein the measured operating parameter comprises a chemical composition of a burned first fuel mixture or a burned second fuel mixture within the combustor.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first fuel comprises a process gas and the second fuel comprises a natural gas, wherein the process gas comprises a coke oven gas, a blast furnace gas, a refinery flue gas, a synthetic gas generated as a result of a refinery or chemical process, or a combination thereof.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the measured operating parameter comprises a combustion dynamics parameter, a combustor tone frequency, a combustor tone amplitude, a combustor flame intensity, a pulsation or an oscillation in pressure, temperature, flame intensity, light intensity, noise, and emissions levels, or a combination thereof.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the turbine combustor comprises at least one flame detector configured to measure a flame intensity of a flame of the combustor, and the controller is configured to receive feedback from the at least one flame detector.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the fuel blending system comprises at least one acoustic probe configured to measure a frequency or an amplitude of a tone of the combustor, and the controller is configured to receive feedback from the at least one acoustic probe.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the turbine combustor is set to a pre-mixing mode of operation, a primary mode of operation, a secondary mode of operation, a full load mode of operation, a part load mode of operation, or a combination thereof.

16. A method, comprising:
measuring a chemical property of an operating parameter of a gas turbine combustor, wherein the chemical property of the operating parameter is used to regulate blending of a first fuel with a second fuel;
blending, via a first fuel circuit regulated by a controller, the first fuel with the second fuel based on the chemical property of the operating parameter to form a first fuel mixture having a first blending ratio; and
blending, via a second fuel circuit regulated by the controller, the first fuel with the second fuel based on the chemical property of the operating parameter to form a second fuel mixture having a second blending ratio, wherein the controller is configured to simultaneously regulate blending of the first and second fuel mixtures, such that the first and second blending ratios are different from one another.

17. The method of claim 16 , comprising supplying the first fuel mixture to a primary fuel nozzle of a turbine combustor and supplying the second fuel mixture to a secondary fuel nozzle of the turbine combustor.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first fuel comprises a coke oven gas, a blast furnace gas, a refinery flue gas, a synthetic gas generated as a result of a refinery or chemical process, or a combination thereof, and the second fuel comprises a natural gas.

19. The method of claim 18 , comprising maximizing an amount of the first fuel in the first fuel mixture or the second fuel mixture based on the component composition of the first fuel and the operating parameter of the turbine combustor.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein measuring the chemical property of the operating parameter of the turbine combustor comprises measuring a change in flame intensity, a change in temperature, a chemical composition of a burned fuel within the turbine combustor, a threshold limit of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, or oxygen within the combustion products of the turbine combustor, or a combination thereof.

21. The system

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Menon Arvind Venugopal
• Truesdale Alan Meier
• Kulkarni Abhijit Prabhakar
• Popovic Predrag

Classifications

• F02C9/40 Primary

  specially adapted to the use of a special fuel or a plurality of fuels · CPC title

• F23N2237/08

  two or more different types of fuel simultaneously · CPC title

• F02C7/232

  Fuel valves {(control of fuel supply by means of fuel metering valves F02C9/263)}; Draining valves or systems (valves in general F16K) · CPC title

• F02C7/22

  Fuel supply systems · CPC title

• F23N2037/08

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic