Introduction to Gas Turbine Combustion Issues for Combined Cycle Cogeneration Power Plant

Combined cycle cogeneration power (CCCP) generation is the cleanest and most efficient way for fossil fuel power generation. A CCCP system combines the technologies of gas turbines and steam turbines to produce electricity more efficiently than can be done using either of these technologies separately. Lean premixed combustion is regarded as the state-of-the-art technology for stationary gas turbines for its superior efficiency and especially low NOx emission. In spite of a high fuel efficiency and low NOx emission, the lean premixed combustor has a severe technical issue called “combustion instability”, feedback results of heat release oscillations and pressure wave perturbations in the lean premixed combustor. In this paper, the concept of the combustion instability and its basic mechanisms were explained, and as one of the method to predict and control the instability in the gas turbine combustor, flame transfer function could be effectively used to understand flame dynamics.