Performance Analysis of Biofuel Fed Gas Turbine

The present paper deals with the study of the performance of a heavy-duty gas turbine running on biofuels. In particular, synthesis gas from glycerol steam reforming was used to feed the combustion turbine. Engine performances were compared with methane fed ones. Therefore, a mathematical model of the gas turbine was implemented using GateCycle software. Model calibration was made using gas turbine on-design parameters, while performance test results were compared with experimental running data. The resulting analysis highlighted that the mathematical model is able to correctly simulate engine behaviour in different combustion turbine running conditions thus validating the mathematical model. The combustion turbine studied was integrated with a syngas generator plant and overall efficiency was evaluated. The analysis of the results confirms that using biofuels a reduction in engine performance occurs. On the contrary, integrating the gas turbine and syngas generator plant an overall efficiency increase was registered.