Development of catalytic combustion technology for single-digit emissions from industrial gas turbines

Catalytic combustion has demonstrated potential for attaining the firing temperatures of current and next generation gas turbines with nitrogen oxides (NO,) production less than 3 parts-per-million by volume (ppmv), using natural gas fuel. The technology necessary to achieve this extremely low emissions performance with typical heavy-duty industrial and utility gas turbine operating cycle conditions, has been under development as a joint effort by the General Electric Company (GE) and Catalytica Combustion Systems Incorporated (CCSI) for several years with the support of Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc. (TEPCO). The most recent phase of this program, which began in late 1997, is focused on the durability of catalytic reactors in the gas turbine combustor operating environment. This paper presents the results of subscale catalytic reactor endurance testing at simulated steady-state and cyclic operating conditions typical of utility gas turbine service. The results of full-scale, full-pressure, laboratory testing of a catalytic combustion system having the most advanced catalytic reactor mechanical design features developed by CCSI are also presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.