Development of a Full Scale Retrofittable Ammonia Combustor for Can Annular Frame Engine Implementation

Abstract Low carbon and renewable fuels are an active area of research due to their potential to reduce both stack and life-cycle carbon emissions. Ammonia is one such fuel as it has storage, production, infrastructure, and zero carbon emissions advantages over other fuels. Its challenges include its toxicity, its combustion characteristics, and its pollutant emissions. The authors have begun the development of an ammonia combustor design. The intent of the design is a can annular combustor retrofittable to heavy duty power generation gas turbines in use today. The combustor design is based on technology the research team has been investigating. The Rich Relax Quench Lean (RRQL) combustor is shown by the authors to reduce NOx emissions to levels like that of natural gas based on initial scaled testing. The authors have designed a full-scale combustor, currently being manufactured, and expected to be tested in 2025 in the single can test rig at the KEPRI combustion lab in Daejeon, South Korea. To accelerate learnings on the system’s design, a scaled version of the same combustor design was designed by the team. The design consists of high temperature material additive manufacturing combustor parts. Testing of the scaled combustor was completed at the Georgia Tech Combustion Lab in Atlanta, GA. Learnings from this testing were also used to improve the full-scale design. Scaled testing has shown great promise in NOx emissions, flame stability, fuel flexibility with blends of natural gas, and ignition capability. Full scale and subscale combustor design development, testing, results, and future plans are all discussed.