Operating with varying fuel properties
without additional Wobbe-Index-
measurement on SGT-600
Authors:
Mats Blomstedt
Geir Nevestveit
Per Johansson
Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB
Sweden
Introduction
Operating a gas turbine with fuel properties (such as composition, heating value and
density) varying over time is of increasing interest, for example from refineries but
also if the fuels are supplied from different sources.
This normally requires a separate hardware installation such as a Wobbe-index
measurement. Such hardware not only increases the cost of the installation but also
adds a component that may lead to increased risk of unavailability of the unit.
Siemens have developed another solution, where this hardware is not necessary. A
new loop has been introduced in the control system in order to take care of these
variations in fuel properties, utilizing the normal installation of instruments for the gas
turbine and the auxiliary equipment. With this control-loop it is now possible to run
the SGT-600 (both conventional combustor type as well as the Dry Low Emission
variant) with a fluctuating composition (and Wobbe index) over time without any
additional installation.
Nomenclature
WI - Wobbe Index; “normalized” heating value: heating value/(square root of gas
specific gravity).
DLE - Dry Low Emission
SGT - Siemens Gas Turbine
MGT - Medium sized Gas Turbines within Siemens family (SGT-500/600/700/800)
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
PG - Power Generation
MD - Mechanical Drive
LNG - Liquefied Natural Gas
Fuel supply
Historically the gas turbine business has mainly utilized standard natural gas fuel.
This fuel has a quite narrow range in terms of variation of composition. Typically, a
natural gas composition is dominated by methane (CH4) and has a heating value in the
range of 48 MJ/kg. Gas turbines have been optimized for this fuel, including
minimizing the emissions.
Today, interest in varying the fuel composition is increasing rapidly, driven by three
major motivators:
• Environment - Minimize flaring by fuel utilization
• Economy - Use “waste” gas streams in the plant/source for increased
profitability, e.g. end flash gas or heavy hydrocarbons.
• Reliability: Improve availability by avoiding complex and expensive fuel
treatment equipment.
Picture 1: Flaring gas in the sunset - adding CO2 to the environment.
It can be noted that flaring & venting today corresponds to 150 billion m3 gas
annually. This is the same amount as 30% of the EU annual gas consumption. Flaring
adds 400 million tons of CO2 annually. This is more than targeted reductions for
submitted projects under the Kyoto Protocol.
Fuel properties
The WI is used to compare the combustion energy output of different composition
fuel gases. If two fuels have identical Wobbe Indices, given same pressure and valve
settings, the energy output will also be identical. Variations of up to five percent are
typical for a fuel supply and normally constitute the acceptance limit of combustion
without some type of adjustment/compensation.
Example of alternative gases for fuel supply:
• Inert (CO/N2) gases from processes, Coke Oven Gas (COG) and Syngas.
Results in lower WI
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in natural gas. Results in a higher WI
• Hydrogen in refinery gas and COG
• Ethane from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing
• Heavy hydrocarbons (C5+) from LNG processing
100.000
90.000
80.000
70.000
Wobbe Index [MJ/Nm3]
60.000
50.000
40.000
30.000
20.000
10.000
0.000
0.000 10.000 20.000 30.000 40.000 50.000 60.000 70.000 80.000 90.000
Lower Heating Value [MJ/kg]
Picture 2: WI versus heating value from customer’s fuel specifications
From the fuel specifications received from customers for evaluation it can be noted
that the spread in fuel properties is high and it can also be noted that the spread is
increasing over time. The picture above shows the fuel specifications received
regarding the MGT-units during 2009 and 2010, where the high concentration of
specifications in the middle mostly represents natural gases.
SGT-600 core engine design
The SGT-600 is a twin-shaft machine where the same design is used both for PG and
MD.
Compressor inlet Fuel Rod
2 Variable guide vanes DLE combustor
2 Bleed valves 2 stage compressor turbine
2 stage power turbine
10 stage compressor, EB welded rotor
Picture 3: Cross section of the SGT-600
This machine has been on the market for more than 20 years with some 250 units sold
and 7 million operating hours accumulated. Originally it was equipped with a
conventional combustor but already in the early 90’s the DLE combustion chamber
was introduced. The DLE share of the total operation experience is approximately
80%. The option between DLE and conventional type is cost-neutral and the DLE is
therefore considered as the standard for this machine thanks to the lower emissions
emitted. Conventional combustion can be offered on request for those customers
looking for some wider fuel range (see picture below).
Fully released; Conventional
Fully released; DLE
Sales approved case by case
25 35 40 55 68
Low Calorific Medium Calorific Value (MCV) ‘’Normal’’ High Calorific Value (HCV)
Value (LCV) Pipeline NG
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Wobbe Index (MJ/Nm³)
Picture 4 Fuel range definition for SGT-600
SGT-600 fuel-control design
The medium sized (15–50 MW) Siemens gas turbines are produced in Finspong,
Sweden. This includes SGT-500/600/700/800. All these gas turbines have a common
philosophy regarding the design of the fuel system where there are no individually
controlled fuel injectors/burners. The burners are all supplied with fuel from a
common manifold and are calibrated from the factory in order to have the same
pressure drop over the burner and thus the same amount of fuel flow through all
burners. The fuel supply to a manifold is controlled by one valve. This design
philosophy applies both to the conventional combustor type as well as the DLE.
M a i n c o n tr o l v a lv e
P ilo t c o n t ro l v a lv e
Picture 5: Fuel supply system for the SGT-600
The fuel is supplied to two manifolds: pilot fuel which is used for start-up and will be
reduced when load increases, and the main fuel. The ratio between the pilot and the
main fuel is a function of the load and is controlled automatically.
Combustion challenges
Widening the range of acceptable fuels is a high priority challenge for all gas turbine
suppliers: both conventional (non-DLE) and DLE combustion chamber types. The
parameters normally optimized for a specific fuel are flow number (area) of burner
and combustion chamber and velocities of the air and the fuel entering the system.
By optimizing these parameters the acceptable fuel properties may be changed
considerably.
The issues that may occur when stretching closer to the limits of a design include (but
are not limited to):
• Flash-back – the fuel ignites before this is intended and the flame gets closer
to the burner tip (or even into the internals of the burner/injector). May lead to
over-heating of hardware.
• Pulsations – not optimum ratio between air and fuel injection causing
vibration/humming of the combustion. May lead to cracking (high cycle
fatigue) of components.
• Flame-out – too lean mixture of fuel/air leads to a flame-out. Then there is a
risk of re-ignition (explosion) further downstream of the installation where hot
gas (including path) will be a source for ignition.
• Emissions – non-optimal combustion. Combustion efficiency may be low and
emissions of e.g. NOx and COx will increase dramatically.
Usually the combustion can be optimized for a specific, defined, fuel. The next level
of challenge occurs if the fuel composition varies considerably (>5%) over time i.e.
composition, heating value and WI.
If a design allows such a variation, one way to handle these variations is to monitor
the properties (WI-measurement is the most common way) and compensate for these
variations - in the control system and/or valves for fuel and air operation -
continuously. This causes an increased hardware cost as well as a reliability issue: the
additional hardware (valves and measurement devices) may disturb the operation and
there may be a delay in the control due to evaluation/compensation of the measured
values.
Operational load control
For the MGT’s the main parameter to control the load of the gas turbine is the fuel
supply and the upper limit of the fuel supply is the maximum turbine inlet temperature.
So increasing or reducing the load is as simple as opening/closing the two valves
according to the specified ratio between them. No compensation applies for fuel
composition, ambient conditions or other parameters.
Conclusion is that, considering the control for the load, it is not necessary know the
WI-value at all.
Necessity of defining the WI-value
However, due to a few other reasons, the WI-value is of importance. Some examples
for the MGT gas turbine control:
• Since there are no additional moving parts or control corrections, the load can
be changed very rapidly: load rejection from 100% load is possible without
flame-out, but in order to keep the machine running at idle after a load
rejection it is necessary to have a proper minimum setting value of the valves
when they are closing almost instantly. With a too-low valve setting (area)
there will be a flame-out and with a too-high setting there is a risk of
overspeed in the power turbine (too high fuel flow without load will increase
the speed).
• During start-up of a unit a specific amount of heat shall be injected in order to
get a proper start. If the WI-index is unknown, the start-up sequence may fail
with an aborted start as a consequence. In those cases when the start-up is
going to be made with the same fuel as was utilized in the most recent
shutdown, a defined WI-value will conclude a proper valve setting in order to
supply the right amount of fuel heat at start-up
• There are upper and lower limits to what fuel range is verified and accepted in
the design. It is therefore necessary to keep track of the fuel supplied in order
not to operate outside the defined limits.
Determination of WI-value without a WI-measurement
According to the presented control parameters of the SGT-600 there is a way to
calculate the WI-value without introduction of any additional measurements.
It is a well known fact that any gas turbine will have a varying output depending on
the boundary conditions, e.g. lowering ambient temperature will increase the output.
The basic for this calculation is the fact that the efficiency of the MGT gas turbines
(and most of the other OEM’s as well) is a function of the output – independent of the
boundary conditions, i.e. running at 20MW will give the same efficiency irrespective
of whether it is a full load at hot ambient conditions or a part load at cold conditions.
The WI-determination stepwise:
1. By monitoring the output 1 from the unit, the efficiency is known
2. The output divided by the efficiency will give the heat input to the unit
3. The feed-back signal of the position of the two fuel valves will give the flow
number (area) of the valves according to defined calibration of the valves.
4. The defined heat input at the specified valve positioning (area) and the fuel
supply pressure will result in a calculated WI-value. See chapter Fuel
properties above.
Verification & implementation
Verification of this method has been carried out in the test stand at the Siemens
facility in Finspong/Sweden. The demonstration was made on an engine equipped
with a DLE combustion system. The way to demonstrate this was to inject/blend inert
1
Directly: at the generator terminals of a PG unit or a torque-meter for a MD unit. Alternatively:
indirectly for an MD-unit utilizing characteristics for the driven equipment or the gas turbine.
gas (nitrogen) into the natural gas supply. This caused the WI to vary over time (see
figure 6 below).
The load was kept constantly at 20MW. The nitrogen content increased to 55% (by
weight) in 40 minutes. In addition to the normal control parameters, the NOx-levels
were measured as well as the combustor dynamics (pulsations). No abnormal values
could be seen and the combustion was efficient without any disturbances.
60
N2
N2 content [wt%] and NOx [ppm]
NOx 25
Combustion Dynamics [% of larm level]
50 Comb Dyn
Load
20
Load [MW]
40
30 15
20 10
10 5
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time [minutes]
Picture 6: Measurements from test with nitrogen blending
After 40 minutes the nitrogen tank was empty and the unit was shifting to run with
100% natural gas again. During these two minutes of shifting, the WI-index value
changed 80% without any disturbances of the operation. A minor increase of NOx
during the switch can be noted but the combustion dynamics are kept on the same
level, indicating stable combustion.
This method of operating units with varying WI-values has been implemented on a
number of units (both SGT-500 and SGT-600) in Europe and Africa – both with
conventional combustion chamber and DLE. The installations of those units are in
refineries and LNG-plants, where the WI-values are varying continuously due to the
processes in which they are installed.
Summary
The demand for operation with varying fuel properties is already here – and interest is
expected to increase. For environmental, economical and reliability reasons it will be
necessary to stretch the approved fuel properties and to have the flexibility to utilize
different sources.
It has now been demonstrated that the control principle developed for this machine is
working as intended. The MGT gas turbines can operate successfully on fuels with
varying properties that previously required further refining, were flared and/or
required a continuous WI-measurement.
