Ammonia Gas Turbine Combustor

This innovation program proposes to develop and commercialize a combustor technology to burn ammonia in gas turbine engines. This will enable the usage of ammonia as indirect hydrogen carrier for the storage and transportation of clean carbonneutral energy. Ammonia will be used as high value synthetic fuel, produced from fossil fuels or renewable sources. Phase I demonstrated the feasibility of burning ammonia for power purposes. In this phase, a technical concept for the combustor technology was developed and the design validated via numerical simulations. Later, laboratoryscale tests successfully demonstrated good combustion performance with complete fuel burnout and minimal nitrogen oxides emissions. The combustor design concept is capable of stabilizing ammonia flames over a wide range of atmospheric conditions. These encouraging results support the advancement of the technology to the next development phase. Phase II aims to successfully develop an effective gas turbine combustor technology. The new combustor must be compatible for implementation in the industrial engine identified in the feasibility study Phase I. A prototype will be engineered using a combination of numerical tools and labscale experiments and subsequentially manufactured via specialized workshops. Finally, it will be extensively tested under turbine operational conditions. At the end of this phase, the new ammonia innovation will be patented. Intellectual property generated in phase II constitutes a first commercial product from this innovation program. Eventually, in a subsequent phase, a tangible ammonia gas turbine combustor retrofit kit can be developed and commercialized to retrofit existing gas turbine units. The ammonia combustor innovation can provide multiple benefit to the power industry. Largescale renewable utilities can use ammonia as affordable energy storage and transportation medium to fulfill the needs of decoupling energy production and consumption, stabilize electrical grids, and increase profitability by optimizing power delivery. Second, distributed renewable energy producers, consumers and prosumers can profit from ammonia networks to setup efficient seasonal energy storages that can drastically improve their energy selfsufficiency and economic performance. Last, large scale coal producers can upgrade their fuel to ammonia via gasification. The new ammonia combustor technology for gas turbines will allow a more decentralized and flexible power production with the potential of drastically reducing CO2 emissions.