GASEOUS FUELS (DERIVED FROM OIL-SHALE) FOR HEAVY-DUTY GAS-TURBINES AND COMBINED-CYCLE POWER GENERATORS

Using the TURBOMATCH and GATE/CYCLE computational thermal-models, deta iled design-point performance predictions (relating to efficiency, net specific work and fuel flow), when a low-calorific-value fuel gas is employed (instead of natural gas), are presented. With slight modifica tions in the fuel supply, combustor and turbomachinery of the engine, in order to accommodate the increase in the mass flow rate across the turbine's expander, such a fuel could be burnt in the industrial gas t urbine's combustor, which had originally keen designed for use with na tural gas. The results of this study agree with those for nominally-si milar electric power generators, that are already operating world-wide using coal-or-biomass derived gaseous-fuels with relatively low energ y densities. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.