Development of a modular supplemental burner for optimization of distributed generation/combined heat and power system efficiency

Increased interest in distributed power generation has lead to increased interest in combined heating cooling and power (CCHP). One significant issue in implementing a CCHP is that electrical loads and heating or cooling loads are rarely synchronized. Duct burners are frequently used to provide additional heat when the waste heat available from the prime mover does not meet the needs of the heat recovery device. Duct burners are required to operate on vitiated oxidizer streams which can result in poor stability, poor emissions, or both. Rich-burn, quick-mix, lean-burn (RQL) style combustors have been shown to provide low emission and high stability in lean gas turbine applications. An experiment was performed to assess the merits of using a RQL style combustor in a duct burner application. Several burner configurations were tested and it was found that an RQL combustor showed greatly improved stability over a single stage combustor when operating under vitiated conditions without adversely effecting emissions.