Acid Dew-Point Determination for Gas-Turbine, Waste-Heat Recovery Units.
Abstract:
The efficiency of gas-turbine engines can be increased at constant turbine inlet temperatures with the addition of a bottoming waste-heat recovery cycle. The waste-heat recovery unit introduces several additional problems, one of which is corrosion due to the condensation of sulfuric acid vapors in the low-temperature section of the waste-heat recovery unit and the downstream stack. A review is made of past investigations into the formation of sulfur oxides and sulfuric acid in exhaust gases and the determination of the acid dew-point temperature. The influence of such items as the sulfur content of the fuel, quantity of excess air in the combustion process, and humidity of the combustion air were examined and the results are presented in such a manner that the acid dew point can be predicted for marine gas-turbine conditions. The available experimental data were compared with these results.