Catalytically Enhanced Combustor

Substantial effort is being devoted to improving gas turbine engine efficiency and emissions under a number of government and engine company programs, directed to efficiency, performance and environmental objectives. Precision Combustion proposes a novel approach to implementing catalytic combustion in advanced gas turbine combustors. This approach offers enabling technology for improving combustion stability and successfully achieving advanced combustor efficiency and performance objectives while permitting leaner operation for lowered emissions, especially of NOx. In Phase I this technology will be evaluated both for retrofit into existing combustors and for use in new high performance combustor and augmenter designs for the future. We will conduct atmospheric pressure rig tests of both baseline and modified configurations to evaluate stability and emissions. In Phase II we will choose an appropriate Air Force gas turbine engine combustor configuration or proposed future design prototype and perform high pressure rig tests or full scale engine testing of the catalytically enhanced primary zone to evaluate the emissions and stability improvement.