The Implementation of Evaporated Ethanol as an Alternative Fuel for the Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant in Killingholme

The Implementation of Evaporated Ethanol as an Alternative Fuel for the Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant in Killingholme

van Eil, Tijn (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

Klein, S.A. (mentor)
Pourquie, M.J.B.M. (graduation committee)
Abbott, David (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Mechanical Engineering | Energy, Flow and Process Technology

2024-02-02

Decarbonization is an important step to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement. Greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced to zero, and therefore, the reliability of fossil fuels should be reduced. This causes a shift of interest towards more renewable solutions. However, the intermittent nature
of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy leaves a gap in the energy supply. Currently, this gap is still filled by natural gas, but biofuels could potentially help in decarbonizing this gap. Biofuels could be prevaporized and used as an alternative fuel within existing natural gas-fired power plants. Ethanol is an interesting biofuel as it has a relatively low boiling point, meaning that it is relatively easy to evaporate. Next to that, ethanol has a similar Wobbe Index (WI) compared to natural gas, meaning that it could be potentially used with only minor adjustments to the gas turbine. This research will focus on implementing ethanol as an alternative fuel for the Killingholme power plant, a
600 MW power plant in an open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) configuration that Uniper operates in the United Kingdom.

This research focused on the effect of ethanol on the process design and combustion characteristics, where the process design was only briefly touched upon. It was found that ethanol should be heated to a temperature of 467 K to be in vapor form at the relevant gas turbine conditions. A process design was
made for the baseload operation, where the required heat for the evaporation process was provided by the flue gas flowing out of the gas turbine. Next to that, the use of ethanol requires slightly higher volume flow rates, meaning that the pipes and fittings should be adjusted to keep the desired fuel pressure. The effect of ethanol on combustion characteristics was researched by a kinetic modeling study and a CFD study focusing on fuel-air mixing, where the results will be compared to methane. A RANS study was performed for the CFD study, which showed that the use of ethanol results in a better quality of mixing. From the kinetic modeling study, it was found that ethanol has a lower autoignition
delay time than methane. This will probably not lead to the autoignition of the fuel-air mixture in the mixing section, but it could lead to periodic flashes in regions close to the recirculation zones within the burner. It was also found that ethanol has a 78% higher laminar flame speed than methane. Next to that, it was found that ethanol has an effective Lewis number of 1.56 at the relevant gas turbine conditions, whereas methane has an effective Lewis number close to unity. From the laminar flame speed and the effective Lewis number, it was concluded that the use of ethanol results in an increase in turbulent flame speed. The increased turbulent flame speed and better quality of mixing of ethanol suggest a decrease in flame length. The decrease in flame length and increase in turbulent flame speed lead to higher flashback risks, but it is expected that this will be within the flashback margin of the burner. Based on the kinetic modeling study and the fuel-air mixing study, it was concluded
that ethanol will have NOx emissions similar to methane and that the driving energy source of the combustion dynamics will probably shift to higher frequencies.

Recommendations for further research are the gas turbine’s start-up, ethanol contaminants, extended CFD study of the burner, and the blending of ethanol and natural gas. Further research could complement the already promising results from this report, and eventually, this could lead to combustion tests where ethanol will be used as fuel.

Gas Turbine
Ethanol
CFD
Kinetic Modelling
Killingholme

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Student theses

master thesis

© 2024 Tijn van Eil