Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Natural Gas and Pyrolysis Syngas Combustion in a Microturbine Combustor

This paper describes the experimental and numerical analysis carried out on a commercial micro-gas turbine to investigate the possibility to fuel it with biomass derived fuels. In particular, the aim is to introduce in the microturbine the syngas obtained with pyrolysis of solid biomass, in the framework of a Integrated Pyrolysis Regenerated Plant. A preliminary experimental campaign on the microturbine operation with natural gas has been performed, with variable output power. Results of the measurements are presented and used in this study to tune the subsequent numerical investigation. The synthesis gas shows significant differences in comparison with natural gas that could affect the combustion process and the machine operation. Numerical simulation of the combustion process have been used to identify the flame behaviour and main changes in pollutants arising when using these gases. The combustion process has been simulated with different numerical models and chemical schemes, used both for methane and syngas fuels, in order to identify the main differences.