Hydrogen Enriched Combustion Testing of Siemens Industrial SGT-400 at Atmospheric Conditions

In order to further extend the turbine fuel flex capability, a test under atmospheric conditions of a full-scale SGT-400 burner was performed to study the combustion behavior when operating on hydrogen enriched natural gas (NG). A high speed camera was installed in the rig to investigate the flame dynamics on different operation conditions. NO_x emissions were measured for all presented conditions. The combustion system was instrumented with thermocouples on all the key locations to allow flame position monitoring and to avoid flame attachment on the hardware. Further measurements included static pressure probes to monitor combustor pressure drop. The test was conducted in a systematic matrix format to include the most important combustion parameters in order to identify their individual effects on the combustion behaviors. The quantity of hydrogen in natural gas, fuel split, air preheat temperature, air reference velocity and flame temperature were the combustion related variables studied in the presented test campaign. The volumetric hydrogen quantity could be increased to 30% maintaining stable operation for all measured conditions. Higher hydrogen contents up to 80 vol. % were reached without flash back tendency. A glowing spark igniter prevented testing at even higher hydrogen contents. Hydrogen enriched gas showed higher NO_x emissions and improved blowout limit. Hydrogen blending in the fuel also reduced the combustor pressure drop, lowered the prechamber temperature and raised the pilot tip temperature.