ABSTRACT
Within the ENCAP EU FP6 project, pre-combustion carbon sequestration has been identified as an attractive means of energy production with minimal CO₂ exhaust to the atmosphere. The overall viability of this particular concept hinges upon gas turbine hardware that can safely, economically and cleanly combust the resulting fuels that are very rich in H₂ (up to 90%). Diffusion burners are presently used for combusting H₂-rich fuels, but these require large amounts of dilution (N₂ and/or steam, typically > 50v%) in order to comply with emissions regulations. A further reduction of emissions can only be achieved with lean-premixed combustion. However, such burner technology does not currently operate in gas turbines. The purpose of the present paper is to outline the development of a lean-premixed, gas turbine burner compatible with pre-combustion carbon sequestration concepts. Specifically, an insight into the design & development process is given, and an overview of the numerical and experimental tools and results is presented. High-pressure tests of the resulting burner prototype showed that lean-premixed combustion of H₂-rich fuels is technically feasible at gas turbine operating conditions.

Key Words: gas turbine, CO₂ capture, H₂ combustion, burner development.