A Numerical Study of Decarbonizing Marine Gas Turbine Emissions Through Ammonia/Hydrogen Fuel Blends

Abstract

The employment of gas turbine in combination with diesel engines and steam generators is a well-known power generation technique in modern marines and ship propulsion. Previously, it rendered its foundations in marine industry through higher power weight ratios and lower NOx emissions if compared to pure diesel engine driven marines. As climate change concerns are becoming more serious, the decarbonization of marine combustion products is becoming of environmental concern. In the present study a modified design of the burner and combustor was suggested to allow for the longer residence time required for releasing the combustion products from the 'slow' burning ammonia molecule. Afterwards, the more formidable challenge of relatively higher NOx emissions was treated through analysis of the effect of altering the equivalence ratio, hydrogen blending, increasing the combustor working pressure and staging the combustion. The latest tactic resulted in lowering values of exit NOx to around 30 ppmv, which is a quite promising result.