System and method for burning vanadium-containing fuels

A method for combusting fuel comprising:

• channeling a vanadium-containing fuel to at least one combustor;
• channeling at least a portion of a combustor exhaust gas to the at least one combustor to generate a reduced-oxygen mixture including the vanadium-containing fuel, ambient air, and at least a portion of the combustor exhaust gas;
• combusting the reduced-oxygen mixture in the at least one combustor to generate the combustor exhaust gas including at least one of vanadium trioxide (V2O3) particles and vanadium tetroxide (V2O4) particles, wherein combusting the reduced-oxygen mixture facilitates preventing vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) particle formation;
• channeling the combustor exhaust gas to a particle separator;
• and
• removing substantially all of the V2O3 particles and the V2O4 particles from the combustor exhaust gas.

A power generation system comprising:

• a vanadium-containing fuel supply;
• at least one gas turbine engine comprising:
• a rotatable shaft;
• at least one combustor configured to:
• generate a combustor exhaust gas including at least one of vanadium trioxide (V2O3) and vanadium tetroxide (V2O4) particles;
• and
• combust a reduced-oxygen mixture comprising the vanadium-containing fuel, ambient air, and at least a portion of the combustor exhaust gas, thereby facilitating the prevention of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) particle formation;
• at least one compressor rotatably coupled to said rotatable shaft, said at least one compressor coupled in flow communication with said at least one combustor;
• and
• at least one turbine rotatably coupled to said rotatable shaft, said at least one turbine coupled in flow communication downstream of said at least one combustor and configured to receive and extract energy from the combustor exhaust gas, and discharge a turbine exhaust gas;
• and
• a particle separator configured to receive at least one of the combustor exhaust gas and the turbine exhaust gas, said particle separator configured to remove substantially all of the V2O3 particles and the V2O4 particles from the combustor exhaust gas and the turbine exhaust gas.