Thermal analysis of a heat recovery system for externally fired micro gas turbines

Several serious problems such as material durability and fouling in the High Temperature Heat Exchanger (HTEH) for Externally Fired Micro Gas Turbines (EFMGT) cause the low thermal efficiency. In this study for increasing the thermal efficiency, a duct around a cylindrical fixed bed combustor which burns wood pellets is proposed and two different designs, empty and porous material filled, are investigated. A heat transfer model, based on coupling between radiative and convective modes at the combustor and duct sides is developed to evaluate the important geometrical parameters in the different designs. The predicted results for the empty duct show that although an increase of the combustion length increases the temperature of air at the duct outlet, an increase of the combustor diameter is more effective. In addition, an increase of the duct cross section is the most effective way and according to the predictions, the pressure drop in this case is still acceptable. The porous duct design shows a significant increase in the air temperature at the duct outlet. However, the pressure drop is high. The investigation shows the possibility of reduction of the pressure drop with the same amount of heat transfer by selecting suitable particle size and porosity. Copyright © 2007 by ASME.