Article

pubs.acs.org/EF

Chemical Process Engineering Principles of Combustion Turbines

William L. Luyben*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, United States

ABSTRACT: The lower prices and wider availability of natural gas make it important that chemical engineers become familiar
with natural-gas processing and applications. One important use is the generation of power by burning natural gas in a
combustion turbine. Traditional systems use air for the oxygen source, but the use of high-purity oxygen with stack gas
recirculation is an alternative when sequestration of carbon dioxide is desired. The limiting design parameter in a combustion-
turbine system is a maximum turbine inlet (combustor) temperature because of metallurgical constraints. In air-red systems,
enough air must be used to keep below this limit. In oxygen-red systems, enough CO2-rich stack gas must be recycled to keep
below this limit. The purpose of this paper is to review the chemical engineering process design principles involved in setting up
combustion-turbine systems.

1. INTRODUCTION oxygen to keep temperatures in the combustor below this

Exploration for crude oil and natural gas has been
revolutionized in recent years by the technology of hydraulic
fracturing (fracking), which has been a game-changer in the
energy eld. Predictions made only 34 years ago that forecast
a tight supply of natural gas have, like most attempts to guess
future events, been proven incorrect. Exactly the opposite has
occurred. Natural gas prices have dropped, and there is even
talk of exporting instead of importing natural gas. Domestic
crude oil production has also increased because of fracking
technology.
Lower energy and raw material prices are producing a
renaissance in the U.S. chemical industry. The economics have
shifted in favor of domestic production.
The wider application of natural gas makes it increasingly
more important that chemical engineers become familiar with
its processing and uses. One of the most important applications
is the generation of power by burning natural gas in a
combustion turbine. Combustion turbines have higher
eciencies than traditional steam-generating boilers, partic-
ularly when applied in a combined-cycle conguration (use of
the hot exit gas from the combustion turbine to generate steam
to drive a steam turbine, which generates more power).
A combustion turbine combines fuel (methane) and an
oxygen source (air or high-purity oxygen) to produce a high-
temperature, high-pressure, large-volume gas stream that is fed
to a turbine. The work extracted from the turbine as the gas
ows from the high-pressure inlet to the low-pressure outlet is a
source of shaft work, which can be used to drive electrical
generators, pumps, or compressors. Of course, some of the
power generated in the turbine must be used to compress the
air (oxygen) feed. The higher the combustor pressure, the
higher the parasitic load of the air (oxygen) compressor.
However, the higher the combustor pressure, the more power is
generated in the turbine.
The limiting design parameter in combustion-turbine
systems is a maximum turbine inlet (combustor) temperature
because of metallurgical constraints. This means that enough
inert material must be fed along with the fuel (methane) and
maximum limit.
The mechanical design of combustion turbines is a very
complex uid mechanics problem that includes issues of heat
transfer, ignition, ame speed, ame stability, stress analysis,
and materials of construction. This is the province of
mechanical and combustion engineering. However, the design
of the chemical process system for operating a combustion
turbine is also not a trivial exercise. The chemical engineering
design issues in air-red systems involve nding the amount of
air to be fed and the optimum combustor pressure because of
the trade-o between compressor work and turbine power. The
chemical engineering design issues in oxygen-red systems
involve nding the amount of oxygen to be fed, the amount of
stack gas to be recycled, and the optimum combustor pressure.
There are two basic types of combustion-turbine systems. In
the conventional system, air is used as the source of oxygen. Air
is free, but it contains a large amount of nitrogen; thus, there is
a large ow rate of the resulting stack gas after combustion that
has a low concentration of carbon dioxide (3 mol %). If
sequestration is desired, the use of high-purity oxygen can
produce a much smaller amount of stack gas with a much
higher CO2 concentration (66 mol %). Of course, oxygen is not
free. The maximum combustor temperature limitation requires
compressing and recycling of some of the stack gas, which adds
an additional parasitic load.
A vast amount of literature exists that deals with all of the
complex issues associated with gas turbine and energy systems.
Some general references include studies by Cohen et al.,1 Walsh
and Fletcher,2 and Putman.3 A recent review paper by Habib et
al.4 deals with oxygen-red systems and contains 170
references.
Flowsheets of the basic air- and oxygen-red combustion-
turbine systems are discussed in the following sections. For
background and comparative purposes, we start by looking at a
conventional air-red furnace/boiler system that burns natural
Received: July 12, 2013
Revised: September 12, 2013
Published: September 13, 2013

2013 American Chemical Society 6316 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ef401329s | Energy Fuels 2013, 27, 63166321
Energy & Fuels
gas to generate steam to drive a turbine. Aspen simulations
using PengRobinson physical properties are used to calculate
compressor and turbine energies, assuming polytropic
eciencies of 80%. An Aspen RGibbs chemical-equilibrium
reactor model is used for the combustor.
2. CONVENTIONAL AIR-FIRED FURNACE WITH
STEAM TURBINE
Figure 1 gives a greatly simplied owsheet of a conventional
power plant. Fuel (methane) is burned in a furnace with air to
Figure 1. Conventional air-red boiler.
produce heat. For the numerical example considered in this
paper, the methane ow rate is set at 1000 kmol/h for all cases.
At the high temperatures existing in the furnace, the
combustion reactions completely convert methane into carbon
dioxide and water. We ignore minor reactions of nitrogen to
form nitric oxide.
CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H 2O
Every mole of methane requires 2 mol of oxygen. Because the
oxygen composition of air is 21 mol %, every mole of oxygen
brings in 79/21 = 3.762 mol of nitrogen. If just the
stoichiometrically required oxygen were fed, a methane feed
ow rate of 1000 kmol/h would require 2000 kmol/h oxygen,
which would require an air feed ow rate of (2000)(100/21) =
9523 kmol/h.
However, an excess amount of air must be used to ensure
complete combustion. Assuming a stack gas composition of 5
mol % O2, the required air feed is 12 810 kmol/h.
A complex heat-exchanger system is used to recover as much
of the heat as possible. The limitation is a minimum stack gas
temperature of 422 K (300 F) to prevent condensation of
water in the stack. The heat boils and superheats water that
drives a steam turbine. In the gure, only the heat released and
captured is shown (210.4 MW), with a fuel (methane) ow rate
of 1000 kmol/h.
The thermal eciency of a furnace/boiler system is about
30%, with most of the energy going out in the cooling water
used to condense the low-pressure steam leaving the steam
turbine. The net power generated is about 63.0 MW.
3. AIR-FIRED COMBUSTION TURBINE
Figure 2 gives a typical combustion-turbine owsheet. For the
same natural gas ow rate of 1000 kmol/h, enough air must be
fed to give a combustor temperature at a maximum limit, which
is stated5 to be 1343 K (1950 F). The combustor is essentially
adiabatic; therefore, the exothermic heat of reaction raises the
temperature of the gas stream, which contains nitrogen, excess
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Figure 2. Combustion turbine using air.
oxygen, water, and carbon dioxide. The required air ow rate
shown in Figure 2 (32 890 kmol/h) is 3.45 times higher than
the stoichiometric amount. The turbine produces 138.1 MW of
power as the gas ows from inlet conditions of 8 atm and 1343
K to outlet conditions of 1 atm and 923 K.
The pressure in the combustor is a design optimization
variable, which we will explore later in this paper. The pressure
used in Figure 2 is 8 atm. The air must be compressed from 1
atm up to this pressure, which consumes 93.54 MW of power
(80% polytropic eciency assumed).
In a combined cycle system, the hot gas from the combustion
turbine is sent to a steam boiler that generates additional
power. The total energy recovered in cooling it to 422 K is
150.1 MW. Assuming an eciency of 30%, the energy
recovered from the boiler/steam turbine is 45.0 MW.
Therefore, the net production of power (shaft work) in this
air-red combustion-turbine system is 138.1 + 45.0 93.54 =
89.56 MW. This should be compared to the conventional red
furnace steam-turbine power generation of only 63.0 MW for
exactly the same amount of fuel. This numerical example
demonstrates clearly the advantages of a combustion-turbine
combined cycle system.
4. MULTI-STAGE COMPRESSION
A single-stage air compressor is shown in Figure 2. With a
compression ratio of 8, the discharge temperature is very high
(664 K, 735 F) and may be above a maximum temperature
limitation because of materials of construction (shaft seals).
Walas6 recommends a maximum discharge temperature of
450477 K (350400 F). Luyben7 discusses various criteria
for the conceptual design of multi-stage compression systems,
including an economic analysis that nds the optimum trade-o
between compressor power and capital investment.
Using a multi-stage air compression system reduces air
compressor power and the required amount of air to achieve a
specied combust temperature, but this results in a reduction of
the power generated by the combustion turbine.
Figure 3 gives a owsheet with a two-stage air compressor
system. Using the heuristic that the compression ratio should
be equal in each stage, the discharge pressure of stage 1 is 2.828
atm and the discharge pressure of stage 2 is 8 atm. Note that
the discharge temperatures are greatly reduced (465 and 471
K) to below the Walas limit. A water-cooled heat exchanger
cools the gas from the rst-stage compressor to 322 K.
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Energy & Fuels
Figure 3. Combustion turbine using air, for a two-stage air
compressor.
Total compressor work is very signicantly reduced from
93.54 MW (Figure 1) to 30.47 + 31.76 = 62.23 MW. The
required air ow rate to maintain the xed combustor
temperature is also reduced from 32 890 to 26 080 kmol/h
because the air going to the combustor is at a lower
temperature (471 versus 664 K).
However, the smaller air ow rate reduces the power
produced in the combustion turbine from 138.1 to 110.5 MW.
The power generated in the steam turbine is also smaller (36.42
versus 45.0 MW). Therefore, the net power (the shaft work
available to drive a generator or compressor) is slightly smaller
(84.69 versus 89.56 MW), despite the large reduction in
compressor work.
5. COMBUSTOR PRESSURE OPTIMIZATION
The combustor pressure used in the previous studies was 8 atm.
In this section, we justify this selection for a two-stage air
compressor system. The process engineering trade-o between
the power to compress the air and the power generated in the
Figure 4. Eect of the pressure and Tmax, for an air-fed combustion turbine, with two-stage air compression.
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combustion and steam turbines is quantied for the numerical
example of a fuel ow rate of 1000 kmol/h.
Results showing the eects of combustor pressure and
combustor temperature are shown in Figure 4. The top left
graph shows that increasing pressure requires more air for a
constant combustor temperature. The reason for this eect is
the increase in the compressor discharge temperature as the
compressor discharge pressure increases. More air is required
for the same fuel ow rate to keep a constant combustor
temperature. At a constant pressure, increasing the limit on the
combustor temperature reduces the required amount of air.
Therefore, the higher the metallurgical temperature limitation,
the less air needs to be compressed.
The middle left graph shows that compressor work increases
with discharge pressure as expected. Compressor work
decreases with the maximum temperature limitation because
less air is required. The middle right graph shows that the
power generated in the combustion turbine increases with
combustor pressure because the expansion ratio increases
(discharge pressure is constant at 1 atm). Higher permitted
temperatures require less air; therefore, the ow rate of gas
through the turbine is smaller, which generates less power. The
bottom left graph shows that the power generated in the steam
turbine in the combined cycle process decreases as the pressure
increases because of the smaller ow rate of the hot gas
entering the boiler. As expected, the bottom right graph shows
that the oxygen compressor discharge temperatures increase as
the compression ratio increases. It is not a function of the
combustor temperature because the air ow rate has no eect
on the discharge temperature.
The key graph is that shown in the upper right. The net
power generation is plotted versus combustor pressure for
three dierent maximum temperature values. The net power is
the combustion-turbine power plus the steam-turbine power
minus the compressor work in the two air compressors. For
each temperature, an optimum combustor pressure exists at
which net power is maximized. The optimum pressure and net
power increase as the temperature limitation is increased.
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Figure 5. Combustion turbine using oxygen with CO2 recycle, with one-stage O2 and CO2 compression, for an 8 atm combustor.

6. OXYGEN-FIRED COMBUSTION TURBINE red single-stage combustion-turbine system (compare Figure 2

to Figure 5). Therefore, the principle operating cost dierence
Notice that the stack compositions leaving both the conven-
between the air- and oxygen-red combustion-turbine systems
tional red furnace (Figure 1) and the air-red combustion
is the cost of oxygen.
turbine (Figures 2 and 3) show low concentrations of carbon
The air and recycle compressors both have very high
dioxide (7.24, 2.95, and 3.69 mol % CO2) and very large ow
discharge temperatures if single-stage compression is used.
rates (13 810, 33 890, and 27 080 kmol/h). These make the
Figure 6 gives an oxygen-red owsheet, in which two stages of
recovery of CO2 for sequestration dicult and expensive.
If sequestration is desired for environmental, political, or
economic reasons, the use of an oxygen-red combustion
turbine can be considered. As shown in Figure 5, the stack gas
composition is much richer in CO2 (65.75 mol %) and the
stack gas ow rate is an order of magnitude smaller (1499
kmol/h). Thus, CO2 recovery should be much less expensive.
However, this system incurs an operating cost for supplying
high-purity oxygen; therefore, this must be considered in the
economics of carbon sequestration. What we consider in this
section is the eect on power generation.
The combustion of methane in an oxygen/CO2 mixture is
reported by Habid et al.4 to be considerably dierent from an
oxygen/nitrogen mixture. The composition of oxygen must be
about 26 mol % in the CO2 system to obtain adequate ame
and combustion results. Therefore, the owsheet given in
Figure 5 species the composition of the Mix stream to be 26
mol % O2. This is achieved in the Aspen simulations using a Figure 6. Combustion turbine (8 atm) using oxygen with CO2 recycle,
Flowsheeting Options Design Spec that varies the fresh oxygen with two-stage O2 and CO2 compression.
feed ow rate. The combustor temperature is held at 1343 K by
varying the ow rate of the Recycle stream.
For a combustor pressure of 8 atm, the power required for a compression are used in both the air and recycle compressors.
single oxygen compressor is only 6.27 MW. Because pure Compressor discharge temperatures are reduced from 649 and
oxygen is used, there is no nitrogen to serve as a heat sink. 556 K in the single-stage process to 467 and 434 K in the two-
Therefore, a large recycle of stack gas is required to keep the stage process, which is below the Walas limitation.
combustor temperature at its 1343 K maximum limit. The It is interesting to note that compression of oxygen results in
17 870 kmol/h recycle gas must be compressed and requires higher temperatures than the compression of the recycle gas,
45.98 MW of work if a single-stage compressor is used. Note which is rich in carbon dioxide. For the same compression ratio
that the compression cost of the recycle gas is much larger than of 8 (compressing from 1 to 8 atm) and starting with the same
the compression cost of the oxygen feed. inlet temperature (322 K), the discharge temperature of the
The turbine generates 92.36 MW of power. The steam boiler oxygen compressor in the single-stage system is 649 K, while
produces 160.6 MW of energy, which is converted to 48.18 that of the recycle compressor is only 556 K. The dierence in
MW of power, assuming 30% eciency. molecular structures between oxygen and carbon dioxide causes
The net power generation in this single-stage compression this result. The heat capacity ratio of oxygen is higher than the
system is 88.29 MW, which is only slightly lower than the air- heat capacity ratio of the carbon-dioxide-rich recycle stream.
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Figure 7. Eect of the combustion pressure, for a turbine using oxygen with CO2 recycle, with two-stage O2 and CO2 compression, for a 1343 K
combustor.
Figure 8. Combustion turbine (15 atm) using oxygen with CO2 recycle, with two-stage O2 and CO2 compression.
As increases, the adiabatic isentropic compression work
increases.
The two-stage system reduces oxygen compressor work from
6.27 to 5.20 MW and the recycle compressor work from 45.98
to 33.27 MW. However, the combustion-turbine power drops
from 92.36 to 80.66 MW because of the smaller gas ow rate
(17 380 versus 20 100 kmol/h). Steam-turbine power is also
smaller (42.96 versus 48.18 MW). The net result is a reduction
in shaft work from 88.29 MW in the single-stage compressor
process to 80.66 MW in the two-stage system.
7. OPTIMUM PRESSURE IN AN OXYGEN-FIRED
COMBUSTION TURBINE
The combustor pressure used in the previous section was 8
atm. Is this the optimum pressure? To explore this question,
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the pressure was varied over a range from 5 to 20 atm using
two-stage oxygen and recycle compressors and maintaining a
1343 K combustor temperature. Figure 7 gives results for the
oxygen-red system.
As pressure increases, more recycle gas is required and more
power is produced in the combustion turbine. However, less
power is produced in the steam turbine because of the lower
temperature of the gas leaving the combustion turbine (more
power extracted). For example, at 8 atm, the temperature is
1037 K (Figure 6). At 15 atm, the temperature is 961 K.
The upper right graph in Figure 7 shows an asymptotic rise
in net power with increasing pressure. There is no maximum in
the curve.
However, the lower right graph shows how the discharge
temperature of the recycle compressor increases with increasing
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Energy & Fuels Article

pressure. Using the Walas limit of 470 K, the optimum design is (4) Habib, M. A.; Nemitallah, M.; Ben-Marisour, R. Recent
a 15 atm combustor pressure. developments in oxy-combustion technology and is application to
Figure 8 gives the owsheet of an oxygen-red two-stage gas turbine combustors and ITM reactors. Energy Fuels 2013, 219.
compression process operating with a combustor pressure of 15 (5) http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/1621.pdf.
(6) Walas, S. M. Chemical Process Equipment, Selection and Design;
atm. A comparison of the air- and oxygen-red systems can be Butterworth-Heinemann: Woburn, MA, 1990.
made by looking at Figures 3 and 8. For the same ow rate of (7) Luyben, W. L. Compressor heuristics for conceptual process
fuel, there is not a whole lot of dierence between the two design. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2011, 50, 1398413989.
processes. The net shaft works are 84.69 MW for the air-red
process versus 83.78 MW for the oxygen-red process.
The combustion turbine in the air-red process is slightly
larger (110.5 versus 102.9 MW), but the steam boiler and
steam turbine are slightly smaller (121.4 versus 127.6 MW).
The total compression work of the two air compressor in the
air-red process is 62.23 MW, while the total compression work
of the four compressors in the oxygen-red process is 56.86
MW.
The only signicant dierence between the two processes is
the operating cost of purchasing the oxygen feed.
Capital costs have not been considered in this analysis. The
oxygen-red process requires more equipment (four compres-
sors, two drums, and two heat exchangers), but the
compressors are smaller (56.86 total MW) than the two
compressors in the air-red process (62.23 MW). The
combustion turbine is also smaller (102.9 versus 110.5 MW),
but the boiler and steam turbine are larger.
Using the Economic Analysis function in version 8 of Aspen
Plus predicts a total installed capital investment of $24 000 000
for the air-red process and $20 000 000 for the oxygen-red
process. Utility costs are reported to be about the same
($26 000 000 per year). The basis for the capital investment
calculations is under the hood in Aspen Plus; therefore, the
reliability of these results has not been conrmed.

8. CONCLUSION
This paper has attempted to provide chemical engineering
practitioners and students with a clear understanding of the
basic process principles in the design and operation of natural-
gas combustion-turbine systems. Turbine metallurgical high-
temperature limitations require air feed ow rates that are
signicantly above the stoichiometric amounts needed for
combustion of the methane fuel in air-red systems. This
metallurgical high temperature requires recycling of CO2-rich
stack gas to serve as a heat sink in oxygen-red systems.
Air-red processes have an optimum combustor pressure that
balances air compression work with combustion-turbine power
produced. The optimum pressure in oxygen-red systems
corresponds to running at a maximum compressor discharge
temperature. Multi-stage compression setups should be used in
both processes.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: wll0@lehigh.edu.
Notes
The authors declare no competing nancial interest.

REFERENCES
(1) Cohen, H.; Rodgers, G. F. C.; Saravanamuttoo, H. I. H. Gas
Turbine Theory, 4th ed.; Longman: Harlow, U.K., 1995.
(2) Walsh, P. B.; Fletcher, R. Gas Turbine Performance, 2nd ed.;
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): New York, 2004.
(3) Putman, R. E. Industrial Energy Systems; American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME): New York, 2004.

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