Numerical simulation of pollutant emissions in a can-type low NO _x gas turbine combustor

A research program is in development in China in order to realize a demonstrator of combined cooling heating and power system (CCHP) with net electrical output around 100kW by using of a can-type micro gas turbine. In this paper, numerical simulations were completed to investigate the pollutant emissions in a can-type low NOx gas turbine combustor. Based on the analysis of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, a Chemical Reactor Network (CRN) model was set up to simulate the pollutant emissions in the combustor with detailed gas-phase chemical kinetic mechanism of GRI-Mech 3.0. The CRN consists of a number of ideal reactors of the perfectly stirred reactors (PSR) and plug flow reactors (PFR) in series and parallel structures. Two types of CRN models were designed. One is relatively simple, another is more complex. The results show that the complex CRN model corresponds with the actual combustion process better. The trends of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) varying with the equivalence ratio were conducted. Effects of the inlet temperature and pressure on NOx and CO emissions were also presented in this paper. At last, the numerical results are compared with the experimental results.