In addition to the seminar described here, there are two  other  gas turbine engine related seminars:

Left: The sequentional combustion system for GT24/GT26 by Alstom.
Right: Fuel injectors of a  cannular combustor on Pratt & Whitney JT9D Turbofan

However, what is explained below is a "detailed" version of the one sponsored  by the ASME.

Emission of pollutants from gas turbine engines, whether they are implemented for use in aircrafts, ground-based energy conversion, or for mechanical drive applications, is one of the grand challenges of our time. By most estimates, energy conversion through combustion of fuels in gas turbines will remain one of the most important technologies in foreseeable future. Hence, design strategies for many gas turbine components, specifically combustors and fuel nozzles, are heavily guided by approaches to reduce and/or control the amount of regulated pollutants exhausted into the atmosphere. While there are commonalities between the two class of engines (i.e., aircraft and ground-based), there are sufficient differences in their low-emission technologies that worth consideration of both in one coherent and contrasting presentation. Therefore, it is the main objective of this seminar to present a balanced coverage of both aircraft and ground-based gas turbine engines in which commonalities and differences are described and highlighted to guide current and future low-emission design strategies.

Also, the course takes the view that thorough understanding of the formation mechanisms for the regulated pollutants is critical for intelligent and efficient engineering design strategies as well as for effective current and future technology development efforts. For this reason, the presentation, after a broad coverage of the requirements imposed on combustors in terms of metrics, constraints, and system interactions for both engine types, delves into the current understanding of how these pollutants (i.e., carbonaceous particulate matter, CO, and NOx) are produced within the combustion chambers. This is especially important to those who are new in the field, desire to fill knowledge gap with recently-developed understanding, or wish to migrate/expand from other engines, such as reciprocating internal combustion engines, into gas turbine emissions.

In the last part of the seminar, the attendees experience the interplay between essential understanding of combustion and emission of pollutants covered earlier and its transformation into the design of the current and future combustors in the context of aircraft and ground-based engines. Here, topics such as premixed or partially-premixed combustors designs, staging in lean-premixed prevaporized (LPP) mixture and its consequences on designs of the combustor components, prevaporization issues, degree of mixture homogeneity, combustion efficiency, lean stability, autoignition, flashback, fuel nozzles, and lean direct injection (LDI) are covered. Operability issues (such as, part-load emissions, stability and lean blowout, ignition, thermal managements, pattern factor, combustor pressure losses, combustion oscillations, and alternative fuels) are also presented.

After a thorough summary of the fundamental processes common in such engines, this three-day courses concludes with a comprehensive treatment of the conventional, nonpremixed, and dry low-NOx (DLN) combustor design strategies for ground-based gas turbines. In essence, the last part of the presentation (both for aircraft and ground-based engines) covers case studies from manufacturers and technology developers, emphasizing the system-level and practical issues that must be addressed in developing different types of gas turbines that emit pollutants at acceptable levels.

Individuals interested in this seminar should contact either the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME.org) or Advanced Technology Consultants (ATC) directly. Due to ATC's low overhead, direct-contact clients are offered a competitive and cost-effective package.

Electronic and hard copies of the seminar materials can be purchased and are only available through ATC. Contact ATC for price and shipping.

NOTE: Professionally-prepared "audio-video Powerpoint-type presentations" of these seminars are available for purchase by companies.  Each slide is presented with a clear audio by the consultant, describing the subject, while a digital pointer guides the audience to where the attention is to be focused. Companies can put such audio-video presentations on their intranet to be used by their employees. It is a cost effective way approaching  professional training, which also contributes towards R&D, design, and intelligent new product development efforts. Presentations are updated every year at a fraction of the original cost.  For a sample presentation click on the word "IGNITION" in the picture to get a feel of how information is transferred (High-speed internet access is recommended. Otherwise, download may take a few more minutes). The actual copy sold is of high resolution with high quality sound. For more details and pricing please contact ATC.

Specific Objectives

  • Receive a balanced coverage of emission of regulated pollutants in both aircraft and ground-based gas turbine engines
  • Understand fundamental formation mechanisms for particulates, NOx, and CO in gas turbine engines
  • Learn and understand design and control strategies implemented by manufacturers for low-emission engines
  • Learn and be able to intelligently employ fundamental understudying towards current and future low-emission engine design strategies
  • Be prepared and conditioned to make a smooth and efficient transition from other engine technologies to gas turbine engines
  • Develop the background and build necessary foundation to educate yourself beyond the depth and topics covered in this course

 

Who Should Attend

Design, application, and test engineers, researchers, scientists, and technical managers who are, or will be, involved in the low-emission gas turbine engine technology projects pertaining to aircraft and ground-based engines. People with both modeling/simulation and experimental orientations will benefit from the seminar.

Prerequisites:

A  BS degree in mechanical, chemical, aeronautical, or aerospace engineering, or combination of relevant experience and education.

Special Features:

  • Side-by-side presentation of emission issues in both aircraft  and ground-based  gas turbine engines
  • Systems engineering approach
  • Updated information considering established practices
  • Concise and targeted presentation information specially designed for efficient information transfer at an optimum time duration
  • Designed to bring the attendees to a stage that they can comfortably and rapidly proceed beyond the depth and the breadth covered in the course

How to Arrange for a Presentation:

Due to ATC's low overhead, direct-contact clients are offered a  competitive and cost-effective package.  Individuals interested in these seminars should contact Advanced Technology Consultants (ATC) directly. Alternatively,  this seminar (prepared by the ATC and delivered by a award-winning ATC consultant) are also to be sponsored soon by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (www.ASME.org).

Detailed Table of Contents

First Day

  • Requirements imposed on low-emission combustor (aircraft): Metrics, Constraints, and System interactions
    • Overview of selected aircraft & engine requirements and their relation to combustor requirements
    • Combustor effects on engine fuel consumption
    • Fundamentals of emissions formation
    • Effect of thrust (range of it) and starting conditions on the combustor
      • Engine mission characteristics, Fixed-geometry Rich-Quench-Lean (RQL) combustors, Fuel-staged combustors, and Ignition and engine starting
    • Turbine and combustor durability considerations
  • Requirements imposed on low-emission combustor (ground-based): Metrics, Constraints, and System interactions
    • Key differentiators between aero and ground-based engines
    • Gas turbine-grid interaction
    • Plant-level requirements, metrics and trade-offs
      • Trade-offs for peaking engine applications, for combined cycle plants, for repowering applications, for combined heat and power, for district energy, for IGCC applications, and for pipeline compressors
      • Environmental impacts
        • BACT consideration
        • Air pollution reduction technologies: prevention and control
        • Overall system efficiency and GHG emissions
      • Water impacts
    • Engine-level metrics and trade-offs: Turndown and Thermal efficiency
    • Combustor-specific metrics and trade-offs
      • Operability and transient combustion phenomenon
        • Blowoff, Flashback, Autoignition, and Combustor dynamics
      • Emissions
    • Overview of combustion design architectures
      • System packaging, Combustor layouts, and Fuel staging approaches
    • Fuels
      • Liquid fuels
      • Gaseous fuels
        • Fossil-fuel-derived natural gas (NG)
          • Pipeline NG, Unconventional NG, and High LNG import scenarios
        • Fossil-fuel-associated gas
          • Associated gas and  Refinery gas
        • Coke oven gas
        • Renewable methane-based fuels
          • Landfill gas, Wastewater treatment, and Other applications
        • Synthesis gas
          • Compositional considerations
        • Water injection
  • Overview of worldwide aircraft regulatory issues
    • Aero and industrial engines – contrasting requirements
      • Emissions impacts, Flight operations, Geographical range or operation, Fuels, and Weight and volume
    • Regulatory framework
      • United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
        • ICAO_CAEP, ICAO emissions standards, and Emerging emissions issues
      • National and local emissions policies
        • Adoption of CAEP standards by national agencies, US national environmental policy act (NEPA), European NOx landing charges, European union emission trading scheme (ETS)
      • Future outlook

Second Day

  • Overview of worldwide ground-based regulatory framework
    • Regional and global atmospheric issues
    • Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from gas turbine systems
    • Developing emission criteria and standards
    • International emission rules for air pollution from gas turbines
      • USA, Canada, and European commission legislation
      • European GHG policies: UK, Sweden, Germany, and France
      • Other international regions: Japan, Australia, and World Bank group
    • Environmental assessment- balancing integrated environmental and energy issues
    • Life cycle analysis – consideration of the full fuel cycle
    • Valuation of emissions for gas turbine energy systems
      • Replacing separate energy production with cogeneration
      • NOx reduction with dry low NOx and selective catalytic reduction

Fundamentals and Modeling: Production and Control

  • Carbonaceous particulate matter formation
    • Current/future regulation methods
    • Soot-mass/smoke-number correlations
    • Gas/particulate sampling issues
    • Particulate Formation/oxidation fundamental mechanisms
      • Inception, Surface growth, Soot oxidation, and Coalescence & agglomeration
      • Other related issues
        • Formation time scale, Temperature/pressure effects, Soot ageing, Impact of radiation loss, Fuel/alternative fuels effects, and PAH absorption
      • Particulate formation in combustion systems
  • NOx and CO formations & control
    • Low- and high-temperature HC oxidation mechanisms
      • Fundamental understanding of the CO emissions
        • Degree of mixedness and Turbulence/chemistry coupling
      • CO level prediction in practical systems
    • Different NO formation mechanisms
      • Thermal, Prompt, Fuel-bound, NNH route, and N2O kinetic pathway
    • NOx reduction strategies
      • Thermal de-NOx and Reburning
    • Effects of pressure on CO and NOx formation
    • NO2 formation

Third Day

Use of fundamental understanding  for design of current and future aircraft and ground-based combustors

  • Partially-premixed and premixed aero engine combustors
    • Some results of research relevant to premixed, prevaporized combustion in aero engines
      • NOx reduction potential, influence of pressure and residence time
      • Mixture homogeneity and pre-vaporization
        • Homogeneity and Prevaporization
      • Lean stability, Combustion efficiency, Autoignition, and Flashback
    • Development of lean, premixed, prevaporized combustors with premixing ducts
      • Premixed combustor development in NASA-funded programs
        • Technology for subsonic flight in the NASA experimental clean combustor program (ECCP) and the energy efficient engine program (E3)
        • Technology for supersonic flight in the stratospheric cruise emission reduction (SCERP), the advanced low emission and the high speed civil transport program (HSCT)
      • Vaporization and mixing in premixing ducts (Prevaporization and Premixing)
    • Partial premixing combustors, lean premixing or lean direct injectors (LDI
      • NASA lean direct injection work
      • Lifted flames and piloting of lifted flames
        • Piloting of lifted flames (lifted flame is a means for controlling changes in degree of partial premixing with operating condition, demanding piloting for stability)
      • Partially premixing combustors with internal pilots
        • The Japanese TechCLEAN combustor
        • The GE Twin Annular premixing swirler (TAPS) combustor
        • The Rolls Royce lean combustor
      • Operability aspects of partially premixed aero engine combustors
        • Emissions at part load, Stability and lean blowout, Ignition, Thermal management, Combustor pressure loss, influence of diffuser and annulus, Combustor outflow, Combustion oscillations, Alternative fuels, and Outlook
  • Industrial combustors: Conventional, non-premixed, and dry low NOx (DLN) emission
    • Flame types: Influence of fuel properties on combustion technologies (Gaseous fuels and Liquid fuels), Flame characteristics, Flame stabilization, and Heat release and burnout
    • NO formation [Thermal NO, Prompt, N2O (nitrous oxide) pathway, and NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) formation]
      • NO formation in non-premixed flames
      • NO formation in premixed flames
        • Asymptotic case of perfectly premixed flames and minimum NO limit
        • Influence of mixing quality on NO formation
          • Mixing energy derived from fuel-jet momentum
          • Mixing energy derived from the airflow
    • Staging at part load and idle
      • Switching to non-premixed combustion or stabilization of the premixed flame by pilot flame
      • Fuel switching to individual groups of burners
      • Piloting of burner groups by adjacent premixed burners
      • Longitudinal fuel staging
      • Sequential combustion
    • Case studies
      • Non-premixed combustors
        • NG and liquid fuels, MBtu fuels (Alstom MBtu Burner), and  LBtu fuels
      • Premixed silo combustors for NG and liquid fuels with water injection
      • Premixed annular combustors for NG and liquid fuel with or without injection
        • Single-stage combustors and Two-stage combustors
      • Premixed can-annular combustors
        • GE DLN 1 combustors, GE DLN 2 combustors, Siemens DLN combustor, Siemens ULN combustor, and Siemens PCS combustor