Afterburning Installation of 2xST 18 Cogeneration Power Plant - Investigations on Combustion and NOx Emissions

The new generation of afterburning installations of the cogeneration groups with gas turbine will have to take into consideration the emissions, efficiency and process requirements. The paper presents the research performed at cogeneration power plant 2xST 18 - Suplacu de Barcau, Romania, on afterburning installation flow and NOx emissions, the stage of CFD simulations and test bench experiments. For an integrated analysis of the afterburning installation, at different functional configurations of the cogeneration group, were studied: NOx emission at heat recovery steam generator stack, burning gases temperature at the end of afterburning chamber, infrared image of the upper part of burner. Data analysis, obtained at partial loads allowed obtaining an experimental burner that has 30 % less NOx emissions than the one in the power plant. Experiencing the burner at nominal load, currently mounted on test bench, will permit the validation of numerical model and verification of performances.