The ''Enabling & Information Technology To Increase RAM for Advanced Powerplants'' program, by DOE request, has been re-directed, de-scoped to two tasks, shortened to a 2-year period of performance, and refocused to develop, validate and accelerate the commercial use of enabling materials technologies and sensors for Coal IGCC powerplants. The new program has been re-titled as ''Enabling Technology for Monitoring & Predicting Gas Turbine Health & Performance in IGCC Powerplants'' to better match the new scope. This technical progress report summarizes the work accomplished in the reporting period April 1, 2004 to August 31, 2004 on the revised Re-Directed and De-Scoped program activity. The program Tasks are: Task 1--IGCC Environmental Impact on high Temperature Materials: This first materials task has been refocused to address Coal IGCC environmental impacts on high temperature materials use in gas turbines and remains in the program. This task will screen material performance and quantify the effects of high temperature erosion and corrosion of hot gas path materials in Coal IGCC applications. The materials of interest will include those in current service as well as advanced, high-performance alloys and coatings. Task 2--Material In-Service Health Monitoring: This second task develops and demonstrates new sensor technologies to determine the in-service health of advanced technology Coal IGCC powerplants, and remains in the program with a reduced scope. Its focus is now on only two critical sensor need areas for advanced Coal IGCC gas turbines: (1) Fuel Quality Sensor for detection of fuel impurities that could lead to rapid component degradation, and a Fuel Heating Value Sensor to rapidly determine the fuel heating value for more precise control of the gas turbine, and (2) Infra-Red Pyrometer to continuously measure the temperature of gas turbine buckets, nozzles, and combustor hardware.

The ''Enabling & Information Technology To Increase RAM for Advanced Powerplants'' program, by DOE request, was re-directed, de-scoped to two tasks, shortened to a 2-year period of performance, and refocused to develop, validate and accelerate the commercial use of enabling materials technologies and sensors for coal/IGCC powerplants. The new program was re-titled ''Enabling Technology for Monitoring & Predicting Gas Turbine Health & Performance in IGCC Powerplants''. This final report summarizes the work accomplished from March 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004 on the four original tasks, and the work accomplished from April 1, 2004 to July 30, 2005 on the two re-directed tasks. The program Tasks are summarized below: Task 1--IGCC Environmental Impact on high Temperature Materials: The first task was refocused to address IGCC environmental impacts on high temperature materials used in gas turbines. This task screened material performance and quantified the effects of high temperature erosion and corrosion of hot gas path materials in coal/IGCC applications. The materials of interest included those in current service as well as advanced, high-performance alloys and coatings. Task 2--Material In-Service Health Monitoring: The second task was reduced in scope to demonstrate new technologies to determine the inservice health of advanced technology coal/IGCC powerplants. The task focused on two critical sensing needs for advanced coal/IGCC gas turbines: (1) Fuel Quality Sensor to rapidly determine the fuel heating value for more precise control of the gas turbine, and detection of fuel impurities that could lead to rapid component degradation. (2) Infra-Red Pyrometer to continuously measure the temperature of gas turbine buckets, nozzles, and combustor hardware. Task 3--Advanced Methods for Combustion Monitoring and Control: The third task was originally to develop and validate advanced monitoring and control methods for coal/IGCC gas turbine combustion systems. This task was refocused to address pre-mixed combustion phenomenon for IGCC applications. The work effort on this task was shifted to another joint GE Energy/DOE-NETL program investigation, High Hydrogen Pre-mixer Designs, as of April 1, 2004. Task 4--Information Technology (IT) Integration: The fourth task was originally to demonstrate Information Technology (IT) tools for advanced technology coal/IGCC powerplant condition assessment and condition based maintenance. The task focused on development of GateCycle. software to model complete-plant IGCC systems, and the Universal On-Site Monitor (UOSM) to collect and integrate data from multiple condition monitoring applications at a power plant. The work on this task was stopped as of April 1, 2004.

This study identifies vital gas turbine (GT) parameters and quantifies their influence in meeting the DOE Turbine Program overall Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant goals of 50% net HHV efficiency, $1000/kW capital cost, and low emissions. The project analytically evaluates GE advanced F class air cooled technology level gas turbine conceptual cycle designs and determines their influence on IGCC plant level performance including impact of Carbon capture. This report summarizes the work accomplished in each of the following six Tasks. Task 1.0--Overall IGCC Plant Level Requirements Identification: Plant level requirements were identified, and compared with DOE's IGCC Goal of achieving 50% Net HHV Efficiency and $1000/KW by the Year 2008, through use of a Six Sigma Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) Tool. This analysis resulted in 7 GT System Level Parameters as the most significant. Task 2.0--Requirements Prioritization/Flow-Down to GT Subsystem Level: GT requirements were identified, analyzed and prioritized relative to achieving plant level goals, and compared with the flow down of power island goals through use of a Six Sigma QFD Tool. This analysis resulted in 11 GT Cycle Design Parameters being selected as the most significant. Task 3.0--IGCC Conceptual System Analysis: A Baseline IGCC Plant configuration was chosen, and an IGCC simulation analysis model was constructed, validated against published performance data and then optimized by including air extraction heat recovery and GE steam turbine model. Baseline IGCC based on GE 207FA+e gas turbine combined cycle has net HHV efficiency of 40.5% and net output nominally of 526 Megawatts at NOx emission level of 15 ppmvd@15% corrected O2. 18 advanced F technology GT cycle design options were developed to provide performance targets with increased output and/or efficiency with low NOx emissions. Task 4.0--Gas Turbine Cycle Options vs. Requirements Evaluation: Influence coefficients on 4 key IGCC plant level parameters (IGCC Net Efficiency, IGCC Net Output, GT Output, NOx Emissions) of 11 GT identified cycle parameters were determined. Results indicate that IGCC net efficiency HHV gains up to 2.8 pts (40.5% to 43.3%) and IGCC net output gains up to 35% are possible due to improvements in GT technology alone with single digit NOx emission levels. Task 5.0--Recommendations for GT Technical Improvements: A trade off analysis was conducted utilizing the performance results of 18 gas turbine (GT) conceptual designs, and three most promising GT candidates are recommended. A roadmap for turbine technology development is proposed for future coal based IGCC power plants. Task 6.0--Determine Carbon Capture Impact on IGCC Plant Level Performance: A gas turbine performance model for high Hydrogen fuel gas turbine was created and integrated to an IGCC system performance model, which also included newly created models for moisturized syngas, gas shift and CO2 removal subsystems. This performance model was analyzed for two gas turbine technology based subsystems each with two Carbon removal design options of 85% and 88% respectively. The results show larger IGCC performance penalty for gas turbine designs with higher firing temperature and higher Carbon removal.

A wide range of issues related to analysis of gas turbines and their engineering applications are considered in the book. Analytical and experimental methods are employed to identify failures and quantify operating conditions and efficiency of gas turbines. Gas turbine engine defect diagnostic and condition monitoring systems, operating conditions of open gas turbines, reduction of jet mixing noise, recovery of exhaust heat from gas turbines, appropriate materials and coatings, ultra micro gas turbines and applications of gas turbines are discussed. The open exchange of scientific results and ideas will hopefully lead to improved reliability of gas turbines.

As a technology in early commercial phase, research work is needed to provide evaluation of the effects of alternative designs and technology advances and provide guidelines for development direction of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology in future. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential pay-offs as well as risks of technological infeasibility for IGCC systems and to provide insight regarding desired strategies for the future development of advanced IGCC systems. Texaco gasifier process is widely used in power generation. A process simulation model for a base Texaco gasifier-based IGCC system, including performance (e.g., efficiency), emissions, and cost, was implemented in the ASPEN Plus. To find out the implications of the effects of coal compositions on IGCC plant, Illinois No. 6, Pittsburgh No. 8, and West Kentucky coal are selected for comparison. The effects of the most advanced Frame 7H and the current widely used Frame 7F gas turbine combined cycles on IGCC system were evaluated. The IGCC system based on 7H gas turbine (IGCC-7H) has higher efficiency, lower CO2 emission, and lower cost of electricity than the 7FA based system (IGCC-7FA). A simplified spreadsheet model is developed to estimate performance of gas turbine combined cycle. This study implicated the ability to do desktop simulations to support policy analysis. Uncertainty analysis is implemented to evaluate risks associated with IGCC systems, i.e., there is about 80% probability that the uncertain results of the efficiency of IGCC-7FA are lower than the deterministic result. The IGCC-7H system is superior to IGCC-7FA despite the uncertainty of inputs. Gasifier carbon conversion and project uncertainty are identified as the key uncertain inputs. The effects of different integration methods of air separation unit (ASU) and gas turbine are evaluated. The results indicate that the integrated IGCC design has higher efficiency and lower cost than nonintegrated design.

A prototype USAF engine health management (EHM) system was developed and ground tested during this Phase II SBIR program. The EHM system is capable of real-time mechanical monitoring and diagnostics, aero-thermal performance monitoring and diagnostics, and "engine signature" based life accumulation. For the first time, state-of-the-art anomaly detection, monitoring, diagnosis and advanced life prediction analysis were integrated together in a single real-time engine health monitoring system. Additionally, the EHM system was developed to assist the 2-level maintenance concept and IHPTET initiatives.