Power plants – Combustion products used as motive fluid – Combustion products generator
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-14
2004-02-03
Gartenberg, Ehud (Department: 3746)
Power plants
Combustion products used as motive fluid
Combustion products generator
Reexamination Certificate
active
06684641
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a burner apparatus comprising an inner tube defining a second channel and an outer tube defining a first channel surrounding the inner tube, air supplying means (an example of oxygen-containing gas supplying means) for supplying air (an example of oxygen-containing gas) to the first channel and the second channel, and gas supplying means for supplying fuel gas to the first channel and the second channel, either the first channel or the second channel being used as a main combustion channel and the other being used as a pilot combustion channel, the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel receiving the supply of fuel gas for combusting it. The invention relates also to a gas turbine engine including said burner apparatus and a co-generation system including the gas turbine engine. The invention further relates to a fluid distributor for use in such gas turbine engine including the burner apparatus, the co-generation system including the gas turbine engine, the burner apparatus, the distributor being disposed across three channels including first and second channels through which a first fluid such as air is caused to flow and a gas channel (an example of fluid channel) through which a second fluid such as fuel gas is caused to flow, so that the distributor distributes the fuel gas inside the fluid channel between the first channel and the second channel.
BACKGROUND ART
The burner apparatus described above is used as a burner apparatus for a gas turbine engine used in a co-generation system or a burner apparatus used for an incinerator. With this burner apparatus, it is necessary not only to adjust the flow amounts of the fuel gas to be fed to the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel, in accordance with increase/decrease in the combustion load for assuring good combustion with maintaining appropriate equivalent ratio for the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel, but also to adjust the flow amounts of the air to be fed to the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel.
Conventionally, in order to make the adjustment of the flow amounts of the fuel gas to the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel, a flow-amount adjusting valve was provided in a fuel gas supply line to the main combustion channel and in a further fuel gas supply line to the pilot combustion channel, respectively, so as to make the adjustment of the flow amounts of the fuel gas to the main combustion channel and to the pilot combustion channel, independently of each other.
However, according to the prior art described above, as the adjustment of the supply amount of fuel gas to the first channel and that to the second channel in accordance with the combustion load are effected independently of each other, the adjustment operation was troublesome.
Further, in the case of the burner apparatus of the above type which effects pilot combustion and main combustion, the supply amounts of fuel gas respectively to the main combustion channel and to the pilot combustion channel are reduced in association with decrease in the combustion load relative to a rated combustion load. In association with such decrease in the supply amount, it is necessary to increase the supply amount to the pilot combustion channel to maintain stable pilot combustion.
Moreover, with such burner apparatus, it is especially needed to mix fuel gas and air in a reliable manner inside the first channel in which the main combustion is effected. For, if they are not mixed well, there occurs unevenness in the equivalent ratio in the fuel-air mixture containing the fuel gas and the air in a mixed state, so that in a region of a higher equivalent ratio high-temperature combustion will occur, resulting in increase in NOx generation amount.
According to the conventional burner apparatus, as shown in
FIG. 44
, a supply line provided within the combustion channel for receiving fuel gas supply defines a plurality of supply openings arranged in dispersion for discharging the fuel gas through the plural openings to the combustion channel. In this case, the plural supply openings are opened on the downstream side in the direction of air flow in the combustion channel, so as to discharge the fuel gas in the same direction as the air. With this construction, by dispersing the supply of fuel gas to the combustion channel, the apparatus was designed to improve the mixing degree between the air and the fuel gas G.
With such conventional burner apparatus, in order to achieve uniformity in the supply of fuel gas to the combustion channel by providing a plurality of supply openings for one supply line, it is desirable for the supply openings to be provided as many as possible. However, as the total amount of fuel gas to be supplied to the combustion channel is determined in advance, as the number of the supply openings is increased, it becomes necessary to reduce the opening area of each supply opening.
As a result, there occurs increased pressure loss at the supply openings. Then, in order to discharge a predetermined amount of the fuel gas, it becomes necessary to supply the fuel gas with an increased pressure into the supply line, thus requiring disadvantageous physical and capacity enlargement of the gas supplying means for the burner apparatus.
Incidentally, the equivalent ratio represents an amount indicative of concentration aspect of the fuel-air mixture of the fuel and the combustion air and this is defined herein as follows.
equivalent ratio=(fuel concentration/air concentration)/(fuel concentration/air concentration)st
Each concentration is represented in the mole value, and (fuel concentration/air concentration)st is a theoretical fuel-air ratio. This theoretical fuel-air ratio is the concentration ratio between an amount of fuel and air needed for complete oxidation of that amount of fuel.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a fluid distributor which allows easy adjustment of the supply amounts of fuel gas to the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel depending e.g. on the combustion load and which also allows increase in the distribution ratio of the supply amount to the pilot combustion channel in association with decrease in the supply amount, as well as a preferred burner apparatus using the distributor, a gas turbine engine including the burner apparatus and a co-generation system including the gas turbine engine.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a burner apparatus which achieves reduced pressure loss occurring when the fuel gas is supplied to the combustion channel and which also achieves superior mixing of the fuel gas and the air.
In order to accomplish the above-noted objects, the burner apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that said gas supplying means includes a plurality of fluid distributors arranged in dispersion in a peripheral direction of the main combustion channel and the pilot combustion channel, each fluid distributor including a first supply opening for supplying the fuel gas into the main combustion channel, a supply line for supplying the fuel gas present inside the gas channel to the first supply opening, and distributing means incorporated in the supply line for distributing the fuel gas into the pilot combustion channel so that the distribution ratio of the fuel gas to be supplied to the first supply opening is increased in response to increase in a total supply amount of the fuel gas from the gas channel and conversely the distribution ratio of the fuel gas to be supplied to the first supply opening is decreased in response to decrease in the total supply amount.
Further, the burner apparatus according to the present invention, in addition to the burner apparatus construction described above, is further characterized in that the first channel is used as the main combustion channel and the second channel is used as the pilot combustion channel.
That is to say, the first channel
Ippommatsu Masamichi
Ito Seiichi
Koga Shonosuke
Moriya Koji
Nakamura Yuji
Gartenberg Ehud
Osaka Gas Co. Ltd.
Webb Ziesenheim & Logsdon Orkin & Hanson, P.C.
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