EMISSIONS CONTROL

Latest GTs pose special

challenges for NOx, CO
catalyst system design
By Dan Ott, Environex Inc

T
he state-of-the-art gas turbines Unfired Fired
ance for 22% excess ammonia (2-ppm
(GTs), such as the H-class stack/9-ppm inlet = 22%). When the
and J-class machines, are turbine-exit NOx increases to 30 ppm,
designed to maximize fuel- a 2-ppm NOx/2-ppm ammonia-slip limit
to-electricity efficiency, achieving and requires 93% NOx removal with only
even exceeding 60% in combined-cycle 7% excess ammonia.
mode. Already, there are an impressive The success of the SCR design is
number of these machines in the field; critically dependent on the amount of
one supplier listed 80+ H-class GTs excess ammonia that can be injected.
operating, in commissioning, being Systems should be designed for greater
installed, or on order. excess ammonia at higher NOx remov-
This achievement is accomplished al requirements, but the regulations
through increased firing temperatures, currently do not allow this.
upgraded combustion staging, and 1. Higher exit NOx from H-class Fig 2 compares designs with differ-
advanced metallurgy. The tradeoff machines stresses the limits of current ent NOx-removal and excess-ammonia
to higher temperature, of course, is SCR design allowances, taking into account the
increased thermal-NOx formation. The complexity and operability of the
burden of turbine-exit NOx emissions elaborate ammonia injection grids, designs. Note that most of the newest,
ends up on the SCR system, at least and more frequent tuning. higher-efficiency designs are in the
to achieve the same stack emissions Equally important to the SCR design “highest risk” zone where the risk of
as specified for F-class sites. is the impact from the ammonia-slip failure on commissioning is high and
Additionally, these machines are limit. A Frame 7F turbine with dry- maintenance (catalyst replacement,
being promoted for even faster starts, low-NOx technology and a turbine-exit catalyst cleaning, and ammonia tun-
more frequent cycling, and opera- NOx level of 9 ppmvdc can rather easily ing) is frequent and costly.
tion at loads down to 20% compared meet a 2-ppm NOx/2-ppm ammonia-slip All turbines, including the newest
to the 50%-to-baseload range his- limit with 78% NOx removal and allow- designs, are now required operate at
torically required of earlier designs.
Lower-load operation coupled with 0
higher exhaust NOx levels present a 30 ppm inlet NOx
demanding set of design challenges 5 2 ppm ammonia slip
for the post-combustion NOx and CO
Ammonia slip/inlet ammonia, %

catalyst systems. 10 15 ppm inlet NOx 45 ppm inlet NOx

2 ppm ammonia slip 2 ppm ammonia slip
Currently, gas-fired turbines often 15
are required to achieve 2- to 2.5-ppmvdc
stack NOx, 2- to 5-ppm ammonia slip, 20
and CO limits of 1 to 6 ppm. These lim-
its became a de facto standard, at least 25 9 ppm inlet NOx 25 ppm inlet NOx
in the US, after they were demonstrated 2 ppm ammonia slip 5 ppm ammonia Slip
based on F-class and aeroderivative 30
engines with typical turbine-exit NOx 30 ppm inlet NOx
between 9 and 20 ppmvdc. 35 5 ppm ammonia slip
25 ppm inlet NOx
The new H-class machines exhibit 10 ppm ammonia slip
40
25 to 30 ppmvdc NOx emissions (Fig
9 ppm inlet NOx
1) with some excursions above 35 45 5 ppm ammonia slip
ppmvdc. This is by no means a trivial
increase. 50
The SCR system designs are going 50 60 70 80 90 100
from 75% to 85% NOx removal for NOx conversion, %
F-class units to designs of 92% to Operable, conventional design Common design request
94% removal efficiency for the new Operable, high risk/cost design Commercial operating plant
advanced turbines. Higher conversion Highest risk
rates mean more catalyst, more fre-
quent catalyst replacement, far more 2. Recent design requests land in the highest-risk part of the performance envelope
30 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, Number 58, Third Quarter 2018
 Smarter catalysts: two in one
Better emissions compliance

Clean air is our business. The GTC-802 (NOx/CO-VOC) “Dual Function” catalyst will
help your plant meet stricter emission standards while improving performance and
profitability. GTC-802 combines two catalysts in one, delivering both superior
NOx reduction and outstanding CO and VOC oxidation. Lowest pressure drop,
near zero SO2 oxidation and reduced ammonia slip add up to improved heat
rate, increased power output and fewer cold-end maintenance issues. GTC-802 is
positioned downstream of the ammonia injection grid in the same location as the
current SCR catalyst. As an added benefit, the catalyst allows direct injection of
liquid ammonia or urea in place of the traditional vaporized ammonia.

http://secc.umicore.com
 100 60

Turbine exit NOx, ppmvdc

50

Turbine exit CO, ppmvdc

80

40
60
30
40
20
20
10

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 50 100
Gas-turbine load, % of full load Gas-turbine load, % of full load
3, 4. H-class machines are at risk of exceeding CO (left) and NOx (right) permit
levels at less than 50% of rated full-load output with current design capabilities

low and variable loads to respond to emissions at low load require the SCR
dynamic grid demands. This is in due and CO catalyst systems to achieve
in part to the growing impact of renew- emissions reductions as high as 98%,
able power. Output down to 20% load far exceeding the capability of most
is not uncommon. designs.
Figs 3 and 4 show real-time oper- We have reached the limit of
The authoritative ating data for NOx and CO current SCR and CO cata-
emissions versus load for an lyst technology. We must
information resource for advanced-class turbine. Most increase awareness of these
owner/operators of low-NOx/low-CO combustor issues and look for broader
gas-turbine-based technology is designed to solutions, including modi-
function within guaranteed fied hardware and regula-
peaking, cogen, and limits for NOx and CO above tory relief, to allow these
combined-cycle plants. 50% load. Below that, NOx new turbines to perform as
Subscribe via the Internet, access: and CO increase rapidly required in an increasingly
www.ccj-online.com/subscribe because of suboptimal fuel/ dynamic and unpredictable
air mixing. These spikes in Ott
energy market. ccj

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32 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, Number 58, Third Quarter 2018