IMPROVED COMBUSTION EFFICIENCY OF A H-2 O-2 STEAM-GENERATOR FOR SPINNING RESERVE APPLICATION/

Within the last ten years, DLR has proposed, developed and tested an a lternative to conventional control methods for spinning reserve, such as life steam throttling and/or low pressure preheater shut-down, the spontaneous generation of additional steam formed by chemical reaction from stoichiometric mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen. In the so-called H-2/O-2 steam generator, the temperature of the reactant, in the idea l case pure steam, is reduced by injection of preheated feed water to correspond exactly with the temperature level of the steam condition a t the point of injection into the power plant process. Initially, at D LR the main emphasis was laid on the development of the device, i.e. t he closed loop control of all mass flow rates, steam quality and tempe rature, ignition and optimized startup behavior of pressure and temper ature. During 1994, DLR and Dasa carried out an experimental program a t Lampoldshausen to improve the combustion efficiency of the device by applying Dasa's state-of-the-art rocket engine technology for design and fabrication of the propellant injection system. The experimental r esults achieved through combining the experimental version of the stea m generator and the closed loop control system from DLR and the modifi ed propellant injection system from Dasa clearly show that the technic al problems in establishing a spinning reserve system based on a H-2/O -2 steam generator can be overcome. (C) 1998 International Association for Hydrogen Energy.