Re-sizing of a natural gas fired two-shaft gas turbine for low calorific gas operation

Gas turbine systems are predominantly designed to be fuelled with gaseous fuels within a limited Wobbe index range (typically HHV=45-55 MJ/Nm³ or 1200-1480 Btu/scf). When low calorific fuel gases are fired, the engine will be forced to operate outside its design envelope. The added mass flow will typically raise the cycle pressure ratio and in two-shaft designs also raise the gas generator shaft speed. In this study, the response of a natural gas fired simple cycle two-shaft gas turbine operating at full firing temperature is investigated. A model based on the Volvo Aero Corp. VT4400 gas turbine (originally Dresser Rand DR990) characterized by one compressor and two expander maps is considered. The free turbine is operated at fixed physical speed. Different amounts of N₂ or CO₂ are added to the fuel path. These two inerts are typically found in large quantities in medium and low calorific fuels. The fuels lower heating value is thus gradually changed from 50 MJ/kg (21.5 kBtu/lb) to 5MJ/kg (2.15 kBtu/lb). Emphasis has been put on predicting the compressor behavior in different resizing scenarios. The full 'firing temperature' operating point in the compressor map is tracked as the compressor size is reduced up to 7.5%, high pressure turbine size is increased up to 20%, low pressure turbine size is changed ±7.5% or up to 10% of steam (c.f. design point compressor air mass flow) is injected between the turbines. Different re-matching schemes are discussed where one turbomachinery component size is fixed and the two other component sizes are changed such that the compressor design point is restored. Finally a re-optimized turbine flow path is computed in a fixed compressor size scenario. Results are, as far as possible, given as non-dimensional parameter groups for easy comparison with other machines.