Combustion analysis of syngas fuels applied in a micro gas turbine combustor with a rotating casing

Combustion characteristics of a can combustor with a rotating casing for an innovative micro gas turbine have been modeled. The effects of syngas compositions and the rotating speed on the combustor performance were investigated. The effects of rotation on the combustion performance have been studied previously with methane as the fuel. This work extended the investigation for future application with syngas blended fuels. Two typical compositions of syngas were used namely: H₂-rich (H₂:CO=80:20, by volume) and equal molar (H₂:CO=50:50). The analyses were performed with a computational model, which consists of three-dimension compressible k-ε realizable turbulent flow model and presumed probability density function for combustion process invoking a laminar flamelet assumption generated by detailed chemical kinetics from GRI 3.0. As syngas is substituted for methane at a constant fuel flow rate, the high temperature flame is stabilized along the wall of the combustor liner. With the casing rotating, pattern factor and exit temperature increase, but the lower heating value of syngas causes a power shortage. To make up the power, the fuel flow rate is raised to maintain the thermal load. Consequently, the high temperature flame is pushed downstream due to increased fuel injection velocity. NO_x emission decreases as the rotational speed increases in both cases. Pattern factor decreases but exit temperature increases with the increase of roatation speed indicating a higher combustion efficiency. However, there is possible hotspots at exit due to higher pattern factor (PF>0.3) for H₂-rich and equal molar syngas at lower speed of rotation, which needs to be resolved by improving the cooling strategy.