System and method for generating electric energy
AssigneeFinno Energy Oy
InventorsTimo Erämaa, Heikki J. Salminen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and a system for implementing the method so as to alleviate the disadvantages of a reciprocating combustion engine and gas turbine in electric energy production. The invention is based on the idea of arranging a combustion chamber (10) outside a turbine (22) and providing compressed air from serially connected compressors to the combustion chamber in order to carry out a combustion process supplemented with high pressure steam pulses. The combustion chamber (10) is arranged to receive compressed air from each compressing stage of the serially connected compressors (24) for gradually increasing the amount of compressed air in the combustion chamber (10).
Claims13
An electric generator system having
- a turbine in connection with a generator and one or more compressors for converting energy fed to the turbine into electric energy with the generator and to compress air with one or more compressors,
- a combustion chamber arranged to receive compressed air from the one or more compressors and fuel from a fuel tank to initiate a combustion process and output combustion products into the turbine for rotating the rotor of the turbine, the combustion process being a cycle process comprising a compression phase and an expansion phase, the combustion process being a constant-volume Humphrey cycle process,
- one or more fuel input valves for providing the fuel to the combustion chamber,
- one or more air input valves for providing the compressed air to the combustion chamber,
- one or more steam input valves for providing steam to the combustion chamber,
- a control unit for controlling said one or more fuel input valves, said one or more air input valves and said one or more steam input valves, whereby
- said one or more fuel input valves and said one or more air input valves are controlled to match the cyclic combustion process to a frequency of specific gas oscillations so that the combustion process cycle and the specific gas oscillations amplify each other,
- said one or more steam input valves are controlled to generate a plurality of time-dependent, short, high-pressure steam injection pulses into the combustion chamber within a single combustion cycle between expansion phases of the combustion process.
A method for generating electric energy comprising:
- providing an input of fuel to a combustion chamber,
- providing an input of compressed air to the combustion chamber,
- providing an input of steam to the combustion chamber,
- providing a stream of combustion products and compressed air from the combustion chamber to a turbine for producing power,
- operating a generator using the power the turbine produces for generating electric energy,
- operating one or more compressors for compressing air for the combustion chamber, and
- controlling the input of fuel and the input of compressed air to the combustion chamber in order to run a combustion cycle process in the combustion chamber, the cycle process comprising a compression phase and an expansion phase and the combustion process being a constant-volume Humphrey cycle process,
- controlling the input of fuel and the input of compressed air to the combustion chamber such that the combustion process cycle matches a frequency of specific gas oscillations so that the combustion process cycle and the specific gas oscillations amplify each other,
- controlling the input of steam to the combustion chamber so that the steam is injected in plurality of time-dependent, short, high-pressure pulses within a single combustion cycle between expansion phases of the combustion process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.