General Electric Company

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Ge Vernova Technology Gmbh

Jeffrey Scott Goldmeer

Hua Xia

Kevin Thomas McCarthy

Ertan Yilmaz

Simon Ralph Sanderson

Ravindra Annigeri

William H Girodet

Kripa K Varanasi

Geoffrey David Myers

Christian Lee Vandervort

Chellappa Balan

Joel Meier Haynes

Michael Kent Cueman

Douglas Frank Beadie

Avinash Vinayak Taware

Michael Richard Durling

Aditya Kumar

Keith Robert McManus

Nitin Bhate

Yu Zhao

Russell Stephen DeMuth

Clayton Ming Young

Hunt Adams Sutherland

Chukwueloka Obiora Umeh

William James Lawson

Ilya Alexandrovich Slobodyanskiy

Anthony Bruce Campbell

Joshua Shane Sater

Ted Carlton Kreutz

A method for starting and operating a NMHC fueled gas turbine combined cycle power plant includes injecting gaseous NMHC fuel into a gaseous NMHC fuel treatment system, injecting at least one of auxiliary steam, HRSG steam, or HRSG water into the gaseous NMHC fuel treatment system, and mixing the at least one of auxiliary steam, HRSG steam, or HRSG water with the gaseous NMHC fuel in the NMHC fuel treatment system to form a gaseous NMHC fuel mixture. The method further includes injecting the gaseous NMHC fuel mixture into a gaseous NMHC fuel distribution system, and providing the gaseous NMHC fuel mixture through the gaseous NMHC fuel distribution system to a combustor of the NMHC fueled gas turbine.

Methods for startup and operation of gas turbine combined cycle power plants using NMHC fuels

A system and related method for providing a highly reactive fuel to a combustor of a gas turbine are disclosed herein. The system includes a fuel supply system that is in fluid communication with a fuel supply. The fuel supply system includes multiple fuel circuits. Each fuel circuit individually feeds fuel to a corresponding fuel distribution manifold. The system further includes a steam injection system. The steam injection system includes at least one flow control valve that is in fluid communication with at least one of the fuel circuits. The flow control valve provides for fluid communication between a superheated steam source and the fuel circuit during both fueled operation and during non-fueled operation of the corresponding fuel circuit.

System and method for providing highly reactive fuels to a combustor

A method of preventing thermal hydrocarbon degradation deposits on a surface of a gas turbine component, the method includes providing the turbine component comprising the surface configured for contacting a hydrocarbon fluid, wherein the substrate comprises a material having a nominal liquid wettability sufficient to generate, with reference to an oil, a nominal contact angle, disposing a plurality of features on the substrate to form an anti-deposition surface texture, wherein the plurality of features have a size, shape, and orientation selected such that the surface has an effective wettability sufficient to generate, with reference to an oil, an effective contact angle of greater than the nominal contact angle, and the features comprise a width dimension (a), and a spacing dimension (b), wherein the features prevent the hydrocarbon fluid from penetrating into the surface texture and thereby reduce the adhesion of the thermal hydrocarbon deposits to the surface.

Surface treatments for preventing hydrocarbon thermal degradation deposits on articles

A system for controlling combustion dynamics is provided. The system includes a combustor having a combustion chamber and an inlet for feeding a fuel-air mixture into the combustion chamber. The system also includes a dome plate at an upstream end of the combustion chamber. The system further includes a liner along a length of the combustion chamber. The system also includes an actuator configured to control one or more recirculating zones in the combustion chamber.

System for controlling combustion dynamics and method for operating the same

A fiber-optic dynamic sensing module comprises a support member, a beam extending from the support member, and a pre-strained fiber Bragg grating sensor and a strain-free fiber Bragg grating sensor mounted on the beam. The pre-strained and strain-free fiber Bragg grating sensors each comprise a Bragg grating inscribed in a fiber. The Bragg grating of the pre-strained fiber Bragg grating sensor is packaged more tightly along a longitudinal direction of the beam than the Bragg grating of the strain-free fiber Bragg grating sensor.

Fiber-optic dynamic sensing modules and methods

A flexible and automatic system and method for blending an inexpensive secondary gas with a primary gas fuel for operation of a Dry Low NOx gas turbine. The secondary gas may be a gas fuel such as hydrogen, ethane, butane, propane and liquefied natural gas or an inert gas. Combustion dynamics are avoided by controlling the blended fuel within a permissible range for a Modified Wobbe Index. Combustion dynamics and gas turbine exhaust emissions may also be monitored to maintain safe combustion with the blended fuel. A gas turbine control system may adjust the blend and temperature of the primary gas fuel and the secondary gas to promote desired combustion.

System and method for automatic fuel blending and control for combustion gas turbine

A fiber gas sensor includes a fiber core with first and second refractive index periodic modulated grating structures having different amplitude modulation profiles positioned about the fiber core. A fiber cladding is positioned about the first and second refractive index periodic modulated grating structures. A sensing layer is positioned about the fiber cladding of one of the refractive index periodic modulated grating structures. The sensing layer includes a sensing material made of a Pd-based alloy, such as nano-PdOx, nano-Pd(x)Au(y)Ni(1-x-y) or nano-Pd/Au/WOx. The fiber gas sensor provides a measurement of localized, temperature-corrected gas concentration and composition from a combustion environment. A reflection-based or a transmission-based sensing system with an array of one or more fiber gas sensors is also described.

Sensing system with fiber gas sensor

A closed-loop cooling system is provided for a hydrogen/oxygen based combustor. A combustion reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in the combustor produces steam. The steam is used to generate work from a turbine shaft, which is used to drive a propulsion system for the underwater vessel. After the steam passes through the turbine, the steam is cooled back to liquid water by a condenser that uses a seawater cooling loop to cool the steam into cold water. The cold water is then injected into the combustor, and pumped into passages along the walls of the combustor, thus absorbing the heat. The cold water absorbs this heat until it becomes hot water or steam, which is then injected into the combustor with the hydrogen and oxygen to act as a diluent, thus reducing the reaction temperature of the hydrogen/oxygen combustion reaction. The reaction produces more steam, and the cycle repeats.

Closed-loop cooling system for a hydrogen/oxygen based combustor

In an underwater vehicle, hydrogen and oxygen are fed into a combustion chamber of a combustor of the underwater vehicle to initiate a combustion reaction, which generates high-pressure steam. The high-pressure steam can be cooled with the injection of seawater, and can be condensed into high-pressure water by the addition of sufficient seawater. High-pressure water is then ejected out of the combustor, generating thrust for the underwater vehicle. Sensors that measure the combustor pressure and the external pressure could be used to adjust the combustor pressure, allowing for constant velocity as the depth of the underwater vehicle changes. Alternatively, the sensors could adjust the area of an exit nozzle of the combustor. Stored water can be converted back into hydrogen and oxygen by using electrical power external to the system. After regeneration of the water into hydrogen and oxygen, the propulsion system would be ready for operation again.

Rechargeable open cycle underwater propulsion system

A regenerative fuel cell is combined with a combustion engine such as a Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) to create a closed-loop power generation system. Stored hydrogen and oxygen are used by the regenerative fuel cell, and by the combustion engine, in which the reaction of the hydrogen and oxygen produces water in the gas phase (steam). The steam is used to generate work from a turbine shaft, which is used to drive a propulsion system for the marine vessel. After the steam passes through the turbine, the steam is cooled back to liquid water by a condenser, and stored with the water produced by the regenerative fuel cell. The stored water can be converted back into hydrogen and oxygen by using electrical power external to the closed-loop system. After regeneration of the water into hydrogen and oxygen, the closed-loop power system would be ready for operation again.

Power generation system using a combustion system and a fuel cell

A hybrid power and propulsion generation system for a marine vessel is provided that combines a fuel cell with a wave rotor/combustor. A wave rotor that uses gas dynamics (shock and expansion) processes within rotating passages, using a hydrogen and oxygen supply in fluid communication with the wave rotor, is combined with a regenerative fuel cell for power generation for an underwater vessel.

Wave rotor based power and propulsion generation for a marine vessel

A fuel nozzle device suitable for use in a gas turbine engine or the like is provided. The fuel nozzle device includes a fuel line and a plurality of gas orifices disposed at a downstream end of the fuel line, the plurality of gas orifices operable for injecting fuel into an air stream. The acoustic resistance of each of the plurality of gas orifices is chosen to match the acoustic impedance of the fuel line such that the maximum acoustic energy may be transferred between the fuel nozzle device and the combustor, thus enhancing the ability of the fuel nozzle device to control the combustion dynamics of the gas turbine engine system. A fuel injection resonator assembly suitable for use in a gas turbine engine or the like is also provided. The fuel injection resonator assembly includes a plurality of orifices separated by a variable length tube. The area ratio of the plurality of orifices may be adjusted using an automated valve system or the like to modify and/or control the relative flow resistance of the plurality of orifices. The resulting fuel injection resonator assembly acts as a tunable acoustic waveguide operable for delivering fuel to the combustor.

Acoustic impedance-matched fuel nozzle device and tunable fuel injection resonator assembly

In one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for characterizing an acoustic impedance of an engineering component acoustically coupled to an acoustic waveguide includes: a pressure measurement apparatus adapted to be moved and to be disposed to measure pressure signals, the pressure signals being measured at respective ones of a plurality of predetermined locations along the acoustic waveguide; an exciter adapted to excite the acoustic waveguide with an excitation signal; a data collection module adapted to incorporate the pressure signals from the pressure measurement apparatus into a pressure signal set; a transform module adapted to transform the pressure signal set to a frequency domain set; a wave shape identifier adapted to identify a plurality of wave shape parameters from the frequency domain set; and a statistical computer adapted to compute from the frequency domain set a statistical measure for the wave shape parameters, the statistical measure being selected from the group consisting of residual variance, correlation coefficient, F-statistic, p-statistic, and confidence interval.

Growing community of inventors

Latham, NY, United States of America

Jeffrey Scott Goldmeer