O uso do biodiesel em micro-turbinas a gás: testes de desempenho térmico e emissões

Abstract

Several research centers have been carrying out studies regarding the use of biodiesel in internal combustion engines and the great potential of this fuel has been confirmed. However there is scarce information on the use of biodiesel in gas turbines. Thus, aiming at this need for information, this master’s degree dissertation shows an experimental analysis of the use of biodiesel in a 30 kW gas micro-turbine, trying to assess the influence of using this fuel on the thermal performance and on the emissions of these prime drivers. A computational simulation was performed using the Gate Cycle Software (Enter Software - GE), aiming at determining the thermal performance of the micro-turbine at permanent regime. The simulation was carried out using three fuel mixtures: B50, B100 e DF100. The experimental data to validate the models were attained based on tests of the gas micro-turbine installed in the Laboratory of Gas Micro-turbine and Biomass Gasification of Nest/Unifei (Excellence Group in Thermal and Distributed Generation). The results of the experimental tests and of the simulation are shown as graphics, where it is possible to observe that the biodiesel and its mixtures do not change significantly the micro-turbine thermal performance and, at the same time, make it possible for the emissions of gaseous contaminants to be considerably reduced.