HIPROX
The High Pressure Oxy-fuel combustion facility is a pressurized combustion rig originally designed for the study of combustion in oxy-fuel atmospheres, i.e. mixtures of CO2 and O2 oxidizers. The combustion chamber is particularly suited for gas turbine type combustion systems, where the gas streams can be distributed between primary and dilution zones. The defined power load is ca. 100 kW at 10 bar with 350ºC pre-heating of CO2 up to 90 g/s or air to 150 g/s. The facility has been upgraded through the years and has a fuel distribution system that can handle fuel mixtures (CH4, H2, NH3, N2) in different lines. In addition to the standard swirl stabilized burner available, customer designed burners can be adapted. Several flame tube configurations of different sizes are available (quartz or metal). The fixed monitoring of the unit is composed of pressure, heat flux probe, temperature, and sampling probe connected to a FTIR gas analyser. In addition, four ways optical access around the flame zone allows for flame visualization (direct, high speed, chemiluminescence imaging) and eventually use of laser diagnostics (not provided in the base cost). Latest projects have focussed on gas turbine burner testing with fuel-ammonia mixtures and development of new concepts.
Film showing the HIPROX facility
Oxy-VTF
The Oxy-fuel Vertical Tube Furnace is a combustion facility designed for the fundamental study of solid fuels combustion in synthetic oxidisers like oxy-fuel (O2+CO2) or oxygen enriched air (O2 + air) with electrical heating of the tube to up to 1500 C. Fuel feeding mechanism is with a screw feeder from the top, temperature monitoring and multi-gas analysis is standard. Latest project using the facility has been for the study of MSW in oxy-fuel atmospheres.
DEMOXYT
The Demonstration of Oxy-Fuel Gas Turbine facility is a pilot constructed around a commercial 100 kWel Turbec T100 micro gas turbine connected to the network, to which an exhaust gas recirculation and processing loop, and a oxygen supply line have been installed to simulate semi-closed oxy-fuel gas turbine power cycles and conventional gas turbine cycles with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). A unique feature is the optical combustion chamber allowing to visualize combustion in real engine operation conditions. Full engine data and emission measurements are available. The facility is planned commissioned in 2021.
State of the Art, uniqueness & specific advantages
HIPROX has the possibility of operating gas turbine like burners with both fuel and oxidizer complex mixtures in a pressurized environment. Coupled with the FTIR instrument, it is possible to measure several species simultaneously. The facility is particularly well suited for combustion studies with gas mixtures that can be found in various technologies with Carbon Capture (oxy-fuel combustion, hydrogen, etc.). The construction has been made versatile as to easily adapt other burners and even flame tubes.
DEMOXYT is a pilot that can test exhaust recirculation in real conditions, without injection of synthetic working fluid. It is unique in studying the dynamic effects of a gas turbine operation coupled with EGR like transient behaviour, start up, ramping, etc. Since new combustion technologies are developed for CCS technologies, the outposted burner and combustor allow to add combustion analysis to the measurement campaign. The facility can also be used for hydrogen containing fuels.
Scientific Environment
The infrastructure offers assessment of the general combustion performance of oxy-fuel related processes through the measurements of pollutants emissions or impurities, flame stability, and in-chamber heat transfer. The parameters that can be easily varied are the CO2 and oxygen distribution, fuel composition, and the conventional combustion parameters (power, equivalence ratio). Laser diagnostics is also available on site.
