FOCUS on CFD

Newsletter Supplement

For Power Generation

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overview
Future Power Generation Challenges

combined cycle power

Reducing Gas Turbine Emissions

renewable power
A Powerful Wind of Change The Wind in Spain Aerating Water in the Summertime

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nuclear power
Fast Breeder Meltdown CFD for Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design

fossil fuel power

Coal Gasification for Future Power Generation Low Emissions Bluff-body Burner

combined cycle power

Reducing

Gas Turbine Emissions

the CO modules. The underperformance of the SCR was shown to be due to non-uniform mixing of the ammonia and exhaust streams following the AIG, and poor gas distribution at the SCR catalyst itself. Using CFD as an evaluation tool, VPI engineers designed a two-zone distribution grid that provides an improved flow distribution entering the CO modules, AIG and SCR. Installed just upstream of the CO catalyst modules, the grid redistributes the flow using angled perforated plates that allow the passage of varying amounts of air in different regions of the plane, while limiting an increase in gasside pressure drop that would decrease the gas turbine efficiency. The engineers used CFD to adjust the design of each grid sector, and to evaluate its influence on each component downstream. The resulting two-zone design provides sufficient redistribution of flow top-to-bottom across the unit, allows for uncertainty in the gas turbine exhaust profile and variation with gas turbine load, while minimizing pressure drop across the grid. The CFD results show more than a 20% improvement in velocity distribution at the CO modules and AIG plane. With the revised design, more than 90% of the flow upstream of the SCR falls within +/-15% of the average velocity at this location. Physical testing after the grid was installed verified these results. Most importantly, the field test values after installation confirm that the emissions systems now outperform the regulatory requirements.
The original design configuration CO catalyst modules SCR catalyst modules GT collector/diffuser

By Keith C. Kaufman, Vogt Power International Inc., Louisville, Kentucky

ince 1923, the Turlock Irrigation District (TID) has been providing electricity to customers with a current customer base of more than 84,000 accounts in California's Stanislaus and Merced counties. TIDs generation resources include large and small-scale hydro-electric power plants and two natural gas-fired turbine generating plants. A General Electric LM6000 engine was recently installed to upgrade TID's Almond Power Plant. The higher exhaust temperature of the LM-6000 gas turbine necessitated the replacement of both the carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions control equipment, upstream of an existing heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The newly installed CO oxidation catalyst and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) modules are designed to react with large volumes of gas to eliminate CO and NOx contaminants. An ammonia injection grid (AIG) upstream of the SCR catalyst provides ammonia to complete the NOx reduction reaction. TID found, however, that the newly installed emissions systems were not performing at expected levels, so TID turned to Vogt Power International Inc. (VPI), a Babcock Power Inc. company, to help correct the problem. Using FLUENT, VPI engineers modeled the exhaust system from the gas turbine through both emissions catalysts to the entrance of the HRSG. In the Almond Power unit, a collector/diffuser spool redirects exhaust gas from the turbine into an expanding inlet duct that in turn directs gas into the catalyst modules and HRSG. The FLUENT analysis confirmed what VPI engineers had anticipated: the gas velocity from the turbine was unevenly distributed across the surfaces of the catalyst, so only a portion of the catalyst material was engaged. An analysis of the existing equipment showed a highly non-uniform velocity profile at the entrance to the CO modules. The gas exiting from the collector/diffuser was strongly biased to the bottom and sides of the duct, with significant regions of backflow in some sections of the inlet expansion. While the CO modules acted to straighten the flow somewhat, the flow was still largely non-uniform at the plane of the AIG, which is positioned just downstream of

Pathlines illustrate the flow in the original configuration

The addition of a distribution grid (black) improved the flow uniformity on the catalyst module surfaces

Velocity contours on the AIG before (left) and after (right) the addition of the distribution grid

Fluent News fall 2004

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power generation