Transitioning to hydrogen based power generation through a novel, fuel-flex, gas turbine injector concept

为了防止即将到来的气候灾难，减轻发电部门的气候强迫排放迫在眉睫。以绿色氢代替天然气作为燃气轮机发电厂的燃料选择正迅速成为一种可行的解决方案，特别是在加拿大，那里丰富的水力发电使整个能源循环中的碳足迹最小。为了实现这一转变，西门子能源加拿大公司和加拿大国家研究委员会对开发燃料柔性喷嘴非常感兴趣，这种喷嘴可以在100%氢气和100%天然气之间无缝运行，同时确保严格的排放可操作性，以及安全稳定的运行。考虑到不同燃料的物理和化学特性，这是一个严峻的挑战。来自加拿大西门子能源公司和美国核管理委员会的科学家们提出了一种可能的概念，即结合燃料喷射技术：从旋流器喷射一次主流，以及在主燃烧区上游注入另一种新型微混合喷射。为了实现这一想法，来自麦吉尔大学、蒙特卡罗理工大学和多伦多大学的学者团队将对这一概念进行详细的基于激光的测量和高保真度模拟，以确定和理解可实现的可操作性包层。这将由学术机构和NRC与西门子能源加拿大公司密切合作领导的工作包组合实现。这些包括但不限于确定微混合射流的近场混合特性、燃烧效率和排放、静态和动态稳定包层、火焰稳定机制和火焰壁相互作用。研究结果将允许系统地开发具有良好操作包络的燃料弯曲、微混合-预混喷嘴。这种喷嘴可能会成为加拿大将高效天然气发电厂转变为氢气发电厂的核心技术，从而显著减少其总体碳足迹，并保持其在发电领域的技术经济领先地位。

There is great urgency in mitigating the climate forcing emissions from the power generation sector in the quest to prevent the impending climate catastrophe. Transitioning to green hydrogen in place of natural gas as the fuel of choice for gas turbine-based power plants is fast emerging as a feasible solution, especially in Canada where abundant hydroelectricity enables minimal carbon footprint in the entire energy cycle. To enable this transition, there is great interest at Siemens Energy Canada and the National Research Council Canada to develop fuel flexible nozzles that can allow seamless operation anywhere on and between 100% hydrogen to 100% natural gas as the gas turbine fuel while ensuring strict operability envelope in terms of emissions, and safe and stable operation. Given the vastly different fuel physical and chemical properties, this is a stiff challenge. A combination of fuel injection techniques: one primary stream injected from the swirler and another novel micromixing based injection just upstream of the primary combustion zone has emerged as a possible concept among scientists from Siemens Energy Canada and NRC. To bring this idea to fruition, a team of academics from McGill University, Polytechnique Montréal, and University of Toronto will perform detailed laser-based measurements and high-fidelity simulations on this concept to identify and understand the operability envelopes achievable. This will be enabled by a combination of work-packages led by the academic institutes and by NRC in close collaboration with Siemens Energy Canada. These include but are not limited to determining the near field mixing characteristics of the micromixing jets, combustion efficiency and emissions, static and dynamic stability envelopes, mechanisms of flame stabilization, and flame-wall interaction. The outcomes will allow systematic development of the fuel-flex, micromix-premix nozzle with well defined operation envelope. The nozzle could emerge as a centerpiece technology in transitioning the highly efficient natural gas powered, Canadian power plants to hydrogen, thereby significantly reducing their overall carbon footprint and retaining their techno-economic leadership in the power-generation sector.