Particle emission characteristics of a gas turbine with a double annular combustor

The total climate, air quality and health impact of aircraft black carbon (BC) emissions depends on quantity (mass and number concentration), as well as morphology (fractal dimension and surface area) of emitted BC aggregates. This study examines multiple BC emission metrics from a gas turbine with a double annular combustor, CFM56-5B4-2P. As a part of the SAMPLE III.2 campaign, concurrent measurements of particle mobility, particle mass, particle number concentration and mass concentration, as well as collection of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples, allowed for characterization of the BC emissions. Mass- and number-based emission indices were strongly influenced by thrust setting during pilot combustion and ranged from <1 to 208 mg/kg-fuel and 3×1012 to 3×1016 particles/kg-fuel, respectively. Mobility measurements indicated that mean diameters ranged from 7-44 nm with a strong dependence on thrust during pilot-only combustion. Using aggregation and sintering theory with empirical effective density relationships, a power law relationship between primary particle diameter and mobility diameter is presented. Mean primary particle diameter ranged from 6-19 nm, however, laser induced incandescence (LII) and mass-mobility calculated primary particle diameters demonstrated opposite trends with thrust setting. Similarly, mass-mobility-calculated aggregate mass specific surface area and LII-measured surface area were not in agreement, indicating both methods need further development and validation before use as quantitative indicators of primary particle diameter and mass-specific surface area.The authors express their gratitude to a number of people and organizations in helping to plan, conduct, finance and provide instruments for this measurement campaign. The 537 European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) funded the SAMPLE III SC02 campaign (EASA.2010.FC.10, Specific Contract No: SC02). The Federal Office of Civil Aviation, Switzerland (FOCA) was critical in for providing additional financial support and arranging facilities which made this study possible. We also thank the SR Technics test bed staff, including Frithjof Siegerist, for operating the engines and enabling access to the test facility. We thank AVL, Cambustion, Grimm & TSI supplying both instruments and expertise.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2015.107845

Improved sizing of soot primary particles using mass-mobility measurements

The properties and impacts of aggregated aerosol particles (i.e., soot, metal oxide fumes) depend on their morphology, as characterized by fractal dimension, prefactor, and primary particle diameter. The morphology may be measured directly by time-consuming ex situ microscopy or rapid but indirect in situ methods. Previously, it was found that particle mass and mobility measurements could be used for the estimation of the primary particle diameter of zirconia aggregates, using plausible assumptions related to the fractal structure (specifically, prefactor kα and exponent Dα). Since the formation and growth of zirconia aggregates are different from carbon soot, here we compare primary particle diameters measured directly from transmission electron microscopy analysis of soot particles with the diameters estimated from mass-mobility measurements. Performing extensive measurements on soot emissions from two reciprocating engines over a range of operating conditions, we found that there are no universal values of kα and Dα that can be used for all conditions. However, new optimized values of kα and Dα are estimated here for soot particles. The variation of the primary particle diameter with particle size is also taken into consideration and is shown to be essential to obtain physically realistic results. Using optimized values of kα and Dα, the average primary particle sizing error is reduced for all soot types. This suggests that with some calibration, in situ sizing of the primary particle diameter, using mass and mobility measurements, can provide useful accuracy

Size, effective density, morphology, and nano-structure of soot particles generated from buoyant turbulent diffusion flames

With a global gas flaring volume of ∼140 billion cubic meters, flares are an important source of particulate emissions; however, very little is known about the physical and morphological properties of these particle emissions. To study these properties, a laboratory pipe flare producing a buoyant turbulent diffusion flame was used which allowed controlled experiments on flames up to ∼3 m tall. Three flare diameters (38.1, 50.8, and 76.2 mm) were used in this study with fuel exit velocities of 0.5, 0.9, and 1.5 m/s. ‘Light’ ‘medium’ and ‘heavy’ fuel compositions (consisting of C1 to C4 alkanes, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen in concentration representative of flares in the Alberta, Canada upstream oil and gas sector) were used, where heavier compositions refer to a greater concentration of higher order alkanes. Size distributions of soot particles were measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer. Mass-mobility relationship and effective density of particles were determined using a tandem arrangement of a differential mobility analyzer, a centrifugal particle mass analyzer and a condensation particle counter. Morphology and nano-structure of the particles were studied using transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. Results showed that the particle median diameter and concentration increased as the fuel composition was changed from light to medium to heavy. On the other hand, particle morphology, measured by the relationships between particle mass vs. mobility (or effective density) and primary particle size vs. particle aggregate size, was independent of fuel composition, flow rate, or flare size and was in good agreement with previously reported values for that of soot particles from different internal combustion engines. Previously developed relations between effective density and primary particle size work well for the soot particles of this study. Raman spectroscopy indicated slightly lower D1/G ratios (more graphitic content) for the heavier fuels

Morphology and size of soot from gas flares as a function of fuel and water addition

A large-scale, laboratory turbulent diffusion flame was used to study the effects of fuel composition on soot size and morphology. The burner and fuels are typical of those used in the upstream oil and gas industry for gas flaring, a practice commonly used to dispose of excess gaseous hydrocarbons. Fuels were characterized by their carbon-to-hydrogen ratio (from 0.264 to 0.369) and their volumetric higher heating value (HHVv) (from 35.8 to 75.2 MJ/m3). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to assess primary particle and aggregate size, showing that the scaling of primary particle size to aggregate size was roughly the same for all of the considered fuels (dp = 16.3(da,100 [nm]/100)0.35). However, fuels with higher HHVv produced substantially larger soot aggregates. A scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) was also used (i) to measure mobility diameter distributions and (ii) in tandem with a centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) to determine the two-dimensional mass-mobility and effective density-mobility distributions using a new inversion approach. The new approach was shown to improve internal consistency of inferred morphological parameters, though with a shift relative to median-based analysis of the tandem data. Raman spectroscopy was used to quantify the degree of graphitization in the soot nanostructure. The addition of water to the fuel consistently reduced the soot yields but did not affect other morphological parameters. Larger aggregates also tended to have larger primary particles and higher Raman D/G ratios suggesting larger graphitic domains

Using two-dimensional distributions to inform the mixing state of soot and salt particles produced in gas flares

Gas flaring is a common practice in the oil and gas industry, where droplets of flowback water with varying levels of dissolved salts (mainly composed of sodium and chloride) often become entrained in the flared gas. In this study, we examine the mixing state of the aerosol produced by a laboratory flare with and without entrained droplets of sodium chloride solutions. The resultant aerosol is cross-examined using several different methods, including: transmission electron microscopy (TEM), tandem measurements using a CPMA and a differential mobility analyzer (DMA), tandem measurements using a centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) and a single particle soot photometer (SP2), and Raman spectroscopy. A focus is placed on two-dimensional distributions of properties and the kind of morphological information contained therein. The TEM and CPMA-SP2 measurements both show that the majority of soot particles were internally mixed with salt, while TEM and CPMA-DMA measurements indicate that there are also a large number of isolated salt particles

Particulate emissions from turbulent diffusion flames with entrained droplets: A laboratory simulation of gas flaring emissions

Global flaring volume exceeds 140 billion m3 annually and flares are a key source of particulate air pollution. During flowback operations subsequent to fracturing of a well, droplets of flowback water—with varying levels of dissolved salts—can be entrained in the flared gas. Despite the widespread prevalence of fracturing, very little is known about the properties of particle emissions from such flares. To study these properties, we used a laboratory pipe flare producing a turbulent diffusion flame without and with entrained droplets. Entrained droplets of deionized water, sodium chloride solution, and solutions representing two typical flowback waters in Canada (Cardium and Duvernay) were used. Three different gas compositions (consisting of C1 to C7 alkanes, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen) representative of flares in the upstream oil and gas sector in Alberta, Canada were studied. The results showed that the salt in the entrained flowback droplets increased the particle concentration by about one order of magnitude by forming freshly nucleated salt particles. Moreover, soot concentration increased as a result of entrained salt. Effective density results showed that small particles (300 nm) were mostly soot—a result also confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Electron micrographs showed that the majority of particles were either individual salt particles or internally-mixed soot-salt particles. The inorganic salt particles mainly consisted of Na and Cl, the two most abundant elements in flowback water. Raman spectroscopy indicated that the salt had much less (or no) impact on graphitic nanostructure of soot, while the fuel blend had a significant effect. The results of this study are significant as they reveal that current emission inventories based on flaring of gases only may underestimate soot emissions from flares with entrained droplets

Effective density and mass-mobility exponent of aircraft turbine particulate matter

A centrifugal particle mass analyzer and a modified differential mobility spectrometer were used to measure the mass and mobility of particulate matter emitted by CFM56-5B4/2P, CFM56-7B26/3, and PW4000-100 gas turbine engine sources. The mass-mobility exponent of the particulate matter from the CFM56-5B4/2P engine ranged from 2.68 to 2.82, whereas the effective particle densities varied from 600 to 1250 kg/m3, depending on the static engine thrust and sampling methodology used. The effective particle densities from the CFM56-7B26/3 and PW4000-100 engines also fell within this range. The sample was conditioned with or without a catalytic stripper and with or without dilution, which caused the effective density to change, indicating the presence of condensed semivolatile material on the particles. Variability of the determined effective densities across different engine thrusts, based on the scattering about the line of best fit, was lowest for the diluted samples and highest for the undiluted sample without a catalytic stripper. This variability indicates that the relative amount of semivolatile material produced was engine thrust dependent. It was found that the nonvolatile particulate matter, effective particle density (in kilograms per cubic meter) of the CFM56-5B4/2P engine at relative thrusts below 30% could be approximated using the particle mobility diameter (dme in meters) with 11.92d(2.76-3)me