Experiences in Development and Operation of Siemens IGCC Gas Turbines Using Gasification Products from Coal and Refinery Residues

Siemens is engaged currently in 3 IGCC projects which are all placed in Europe. Buggenum/ Netherlands started by the 1.1.1998 with commercial operation. In the paper an overview is presented about the operating experience and test results with the syngas fueled V94.2 gas turbine. Special emphasis is put on the low NOx emissions of 6-30ppm(vol) (15%O2) and CO emissions of lower than 5ppm (vol). Some explantions are given about early commissioning problems with combustion induced pressure oscillations which were solved by minor modifications of the syngas nozzle design of the burners. The demonstration period furthermore showed that the gas turbine in the 100% air and nitrogen side integrated IGCC is capable for handling a lot of possible transient problems in emergency cases at the interfaces like e.g. a gasifier or a nitrogen compressor trip. In Puertollano/Spain an IGCC plant is equipped with a V94.3 (with enhanced output and efficiency) and will be fueled with a 50:50 mixture of local high ash coal and high sulfur petroleum coke. The plant is currently under commissioning with syngas. In Priolo a new plant fueled with heavy refinery residues is under construction. In this plant two V94.2K with modified compressor are applied in an airside non integrated concept. As the syngas composition is considerably different from the other projects extensive combustion tests have been performed with a full scale burner up to half of the machine pressure. A short overview about the test results is given showing NOx emissions below 25ppm and excellent combustion stability behaviour.