Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Effects of syngas type on the operation and performance of a gas turbine

in integrated gasication combined cycle
Young Sik Kim a, Jong Jun Lee a, Tong Seop Kim b,, Jeong L. Sohn c
a

Graduate School, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea
c
Center for Next Generation Heat Exchangers, Busan 618-230, Republic of Korea
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 28 February 2010
Received in revised form 2 January 2011
Accepted 15 January 2011

Keywords:
Integrated gasication combined cycle
Syngas type
Gas turbine
Integration degree
Turbine metal temperature
Compressor surge

a b s t r a c t
We investigated the effects of ring syngas in a gas turbine designed for natural gas. Four different syngases were evaluated as fuels for a gas turbine in the integrated gasication combined cycle (IGCC). A full
off-design analysis of the gas turbine was performed. Without any restrictions on gas turbine operation,
as the heating value of the syngas decreases, a greater net system power output and efciency is possible
due to the increased turbine mass ow. However, the gas turbine is more vulnerable to compressor surge
and the blade metal becomes more overheated. These two problems can be mitigated by reductions in
two parameters: the ring temperature and the nitrogen ow to the combustor. With the restrictions
on surge margin and metal temperature, the net system performance decreases compared to the cases
without restrictions, especially in the surge margin control range. The net power outputs of all syngas
cases converge to a similar level as the degree of integration approaches zero. The difference in net power
output between unrestricted and restricted operation increases as the fuel heating value decreases. The
optimal integration degree, which shows the greatest net system power output and efciency, increases
with decreasing syngas heating value.
2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Coal has the largest reserves among fossil fuels. Therefore,
worldwide efforts are focused on developing performance enhancements for current coal-based power plants and devising advanced
systems [1]. The integrated gasication combined cycle (IGCC) is
considered to be the most environmentally friendly method of
using coal. IGCC plants have been in commercial operation for more
than a decade. Four full-size plants are under operation [2], and a
number of IGCC projects are ongoing worldwide [3]. Gas turbine
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are actively supplying
engines that are suitable for IGCC applications [4]. All of the major
OEMs, including General Electric [5], Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
[6] and Siemens [7], are preparing for the IGCC era. In addition,
studies on the constructability of IGCC plants are also being performed [8]. In particular, OEMS are trying to improve gas turbine
performance and adapt their engines to the IGCC environment
[9,10]. IGCC technology is particularly promising in terms of coping
with global warming issues such as the reduction and ultimate
elimination of CO2 emissions, as illustrated in recent studies. Kanniche and Bouallou [11] introduced a method to capture CO2, and
Descamps et al. [12] predicted the variation in IGCC plant
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 32 860 7307; fax: +82 32 868 1716.
E-mail address: kts@inha.ac.kr (T.S. Kim).
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2011.01.009

performance due to CO2 capture. Dennis and Harp [13] summarized

the prospects for coal-based power generation systems, especially
the IGCC, with CO2 capture. Julianne [14] presented detailed performance and economic data for the IGCC and other systems adopting
CO2 capture. Costas et al. [15] assessed the competitiveness of the
IGCC in terms of CO2 capture capability. In summary, the high potential for relatively economical and energy efcient CO2 capture
is the major driving force for the expansion of IGCC-based systems.
An IGCC plant consists of a gasier block and a power block. The
gasier block converts coal to syngas and supplies the syngas to the
gas turbine. The power block is a conventional combined cycle composed of a gas turbine, a heat recovery steam generator, and a steam
turbine. When existing commercial gas turbines are used in IGCC
plants, their operating condition may deviate from the original design condition due to many factors. The heating value of syngas,
which consists mainly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is much
lower than that of natural gas, which gas turbines are usually designed for. Therefore, more fuel is supplied to the combustor, resulting in larger mass ow in the turbine. In addition, various options
are available to integrate the gas turbine with the air separation
unit (ASU) [2]. Turbine mass ow varies greatly depending on the
degree of integration, which is dened as a percentage of ASU air
supplied by the gas turbine compressor. Therefore, practical operational issues may limit the obtainable performance of IGCC plants.
However, most studies have not fully considered such operational

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

2263

Nomenclature
A
ASU
C
cp
GT
i
IGCC
LHV
_
m
P
PR
R
T
TRIT
_
W

area (m2)
air separation unit
cooling constant
specic heat (kJ/kg K)
gas turbine
location
integrated gasication combined cycle
lower heating value (kJ/kg)
mass ow rate (kg/s)
pressure (kPa)
pressure ratio
gas constant (kJ/kg K)
temperature (K)
turbine rotor inlet (ring) temperature (K)
power (MW)

Greek symbols
/
cooling effectiveness
c
specic heat ratio
g
efciency

limitations. Several recent studies have shown that the degree of

integration signicantly affects the performance and operating condition of gas turbines [16,17]. The change of operating condition
may also cause considerable changes in critical operating parameters related to engine safety and lifetime. In particular, as stated
by Lee et al., the reduction of compressor surge margin is the most
critical issue [16]. The overheating of turbine metal is another serious problem as investigated by Oluyede and Phillips [18] and Kim
et al. [19]. In particular, Kim et al. [19] considered the two operational issues simultaneously. They demonstrated that a careful
selection of operating parameters is required for a safe operation
of IGCC gas turbines, and that well-controlled operation could provide a safe margin for both compressor surge and turbine blade
temperature.
The properties of syngas are important issues in designing an
IGCC plant. Syngas composition may vary considerably depending
on the gasication process. Currently operating commercial IGCC
plants use syngases with diverse compositions and heating values
as shown by Dennis et al. [2]. Ligang and Edward [20] and Osamu
et al. [21] illustrated differences in syngas compositions depending
on the gasication process, and presented the results of IGCC performance simulations. Moreover, if carbon capture and storage
(CCS) is applied to the gasication process, syngas composition
changes even more, increasing hydrogen content [11]. Ultimately,
the production of almost pure hydrogen is possible [22]. Therefore,
the syngas type (i.e., its composition) signicantly affects gas turbine operation and performance, and a detailed comparative study
on the effects of syngas composition on the performance and operating conditions of gas turbines is required. Most studies dealing
with syngas property variations have not considered the effect of
syngas properties on the operability of the gas turbine, and have
not carried out full off-design analyses that could provide insights
into the realizable performance of IGCC plants. Only several groups
have performed meaningful off-design analysis. In particular, Kim
et al. [19] presented limitations on the obtainable performance of
an IGCC plant due to critical operating issues of gas turbine components. However, their research was focused on a single syngas type.
Therefore, an evaluation of the effects of ring different types of
syngas in an IGCC plant is required. Such a study should adopt
off-design analysis and take into account the operational limitations of the gas turbine.

constant

Subscripts
aux
auxiliary
b
blade metal
C
compressor
c
coolant
CC
combined cycle
comp
auxiliary compressor
d
design point
g
gas
gen
generator
in
inlet
m
mechanical
ref
reference data
ST
steam turbine
sys
system
T
turbine
1
asymptotic

We investigated the effect of syngas type on the operation and

performance of a gas turbine and the entire power block of an IGCC
plant. Four different syngas compositions were considered for use
in a state-of-the art gas turbine engine. Comprehensive component
models including turbine blade cooling were used. A full off-design
analysis using a compressor map was adopted to perform a realistic simulation. The analysis examined the simultaneous inuences
of syngas type and integration degree on compressor surge margin
and turbine blade temperature. Then, system performance under
the restrictions of the two parameters was investigated.

2. System modeling
2.1. System conguration
Fig. 1 shows the system analyzed in this study. Since our goal
was to investigate the operation and performance of the power
block, especially the gas turbine, the details of the gasication
block were not modeled. Instead, syngas compositions and corresponding mass balance data were taken from the literature. The
system includes the entire power block, which consists of a gas turbine and a bottoming steam turbine cycle. Also included in the
analysis are the auxiliary air compressor, and the oxygen and nitrogen compressors that interact with the gas turbine. The analysis
was performed using GateCycle [23].
Oxygen is separated from the air at the ASU and supplied to the
gasier to produce syngas. There are various ways to supply air to
the ASU. Air can be supplied solely by the gas turbine compressor,
which is called 100% integration degree design. On the other hand,
an auxiliary air compressor can supply all the air to the ASU, in
which case the integration degree is 0%. An integration degree between 0% and 100% means that both the gas turbine compressor
and the independent compressor supply air to the ASU. Integration
degree is dened as follows [16,19]:

Integration degree

_1
Air to ASU from GT m

_3
Total air to ASU
m

The turbine gas ow rate varies greatly depending on the integration degree, which affects the operating condition of the gas
turbine.

2264

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the system.

Table 1
Properties syngas and natural gas.
Component (mole fraction)

Natural gas

Ar (%)
CH4 (%)
C2H6 (%)
C3H8 (%)
C4H10 (%)
CO (%)
CO2 (%)
H2 (%)
H2O (%)
N2 (%)
LHV (kJ/kg)

Syngas

91.33
5.36
2.14
0.95

0.22
49303.0

0.88
0.06

35.12
13.1
31.42
16.39
3.01
8621.6

0.86
0.03

50.8
0.05
25.79
17.52
4.94
10493.8

0.99
0.04

2.56
2.04
85.84
3.27
5.26
37018.1

0
0

0
0
100
0
0
119914.6

2.2. Syngas
Table 1 shows the compositions and heating values of four different syngas fuels used in this study and those of natural gas used
for the reference design calculation. These values were taken from
literatures [14,24], which published complete mass and energy
balances for IGCC plants including syngas properties. Syngas A
has the lowest heating value, and syngas B has a slightly higher
heating value than A. The major components are carbon monoxide
and hydrogen. Application of the CO2 capture process to syngas B
produces syngas C. Hence, the hydrogen content of syngas C is
much higher than those of syngases A and B. Syngas D is pure
hydrogen. The relative mass ow rates at different locations, as reported in [14,24], were used; thus, a detailed analysis of the gasier block was not necessary. Instead, we adopted a simplied
method used in [19]. A mass balance for the system in this study
was obtained by scaling the mass balance data given in the literaTable 2
Relative mass ow rates.
Element (location)

ASU (3)
N2 compressor (4)
O2 compressor (5)
Syngas (6)

1.684
1.297
0.387
1.0

1.766
1.324
0.442
1.0

6.923
5.333
1.589
1.0

29.058
18.708
6.971
1.0

tures [14,24]. The relative mass ow rates per unit syngas ow rate
in the four syngas types were calculated from the literature and are
_ 6 ) was detershown in Table 2. The required syngas ow rate (m
mined by the gas turbine calculation. Then, the following equation
yielded ow rates at other locations [19]:

_6
_im
m

_i
m
_6
m


2
ref

The subscript i denotes locations 35 (where the ow rates

should be determined), and the subscript ref means the ow ratio
from the literature. Finally, for any given integration degree, the air
ow rates at locations 1 and 2 were obtained. This method is quite
feasible. According to Ligang and Edward [20] and Osamu et al.
[21], syngas composition and mass ow rates remain constant
once the gasier operation reaches a normal operation. Thus, it is
reasonable to assume that the syngas composition of a specic process (each of the four cases in this study) is unchanged even though
the absolute ow rate of the syngas may vary depending on the
fuel supply required by the gas turbine.
2.3. Gas turbine
Table 3 shows the major design data of the gas turbine used in this
analysis. The power output and efciency represents state-of-the-

2265

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

Table 3
Design specications of the gas turbine.
Item

This work

Reference data [25,26]

Inlet

Air temperature (K)

Air pressure (kPa)
Pressure loss (%)
Air ow (kg/s)

288.2
101.3
0.5
435.5

288.2
101.3
NA
NA

Compressor

Pressure ratio
Number of stages
Polytropic efciency (%)

16
18
90.0

16
18
NA

Combustor

Fuel
Fuel lower heating value (kJ/kg)
Fuel ow (kg/s)
Pressure loss (%)

Natural gas
49,244
9.47
4.0

Natural gas
NA
NA
NA

Turbine

Turbine inlet temperature (K)

Turbine rotor inlet temperature (K)
Turbine exhaust temperature (K)
Number of stages
Stage efciency (%)
Total coolant relative to compressor inlet air ow (%)
Coolant of the rst stage vane relative to compressor inlet air ow (%)
Exhaust pressure loss (%)
Exhaust gas ow (kg/s)

1670
1600
874.2
3
88.1
18.3
7.3
0.5
445.0

NA
1600
878.2
3
NA
NA
NA
NA
445.0

Performance

Mechanical efciency (%)

Generator efciency (%)
Power output (MW)
Thermal efciency (%)

99.5
98.5
171.6
36.8

NA
NA
171.7
36.8

art frame F gas turbines, especially the GE7FA [25,26]. The design
fuel is natural gas. Comprehensive component models including turbine blade cooling were used. The turbine rotor inlet temperature
(TRIT) is the inlet temperature of the rst stage rotor, which is often
referred to as the ring temperature. All ve blade rows except the
last rotor blade were cooled. The simulation results are in good
agreement with performance data from the literature [25].
An off-design analysis of the gas turbine is required to examine
the change in operation and performance caused by the fuel
change from natural gas to syngas. A compressor map was used
to model the operating characteristics of the compressor. The
map will be illustrated in the results section with illustrations of
operating point changes. The design surge margin of the compressor was assumed to be 20%. The surge margin is dened as [16,19]

Surge margin

PRsurge  PRoperation
PRoperation

The off-design operation of the turbine is represented by the

following choking condition [27].

v
u 
p
cc1
uc
1
_ in T in
2
m
t
constant; where j
jAin Pin
R c1

Thus, the operating condition of the gas turbine was determined

by matching the characteristics of the compressor and the turbine.
Therefore, if the turbine inlet condition changes (e.g., an increase in
mass ow), the matching between the turbine and the compressor
causes a change in the working pressure ratio of the compressor,
thereby affecting the surge margin.
Analysis of the change in turbine blade temperature due to the
fuel change is another purpose of this study. We focused on the
change in temperature of the stator vane (nozzle) of the rst turbine stage. A simple thermodynamic model was adopted. The cooling effectiveness is dened as follows [28]:

Tg  Tb
Tg  Tc

At the design point, the gas temperature, the coolant temperature,

and the blade metal temperature were 1670 K, 681 K, and 1144 K

respectively. The corresponding design cooling effectiveness was

determined to be 53.2%. The main parameter governing the change
in the cooling effectiveness for off-design conditions is the ratio be_  cp ) of the coolant and the hot gas.
tween the thermal capacities (m
The following equation represents this relationship [28]:

_ c  cp;c
/
m
C
_ g  cp;g
/1  /
m

where /1 represents the asymptotic cooling effectiveness, the value of which is 1.0, corresponding to a very high thermal capacity
ratio. C represents the technology level of the cooling scheme, and
it value was decided to satisfy Eq. (6) at the design condition. The
equation is an asymptotic curve between the thermal capacity ratio
and the effectiveness [19], and was used to determine the blade metal temperature at off-design conditions.
The following model [29] was used to simulate the change in
coolant ow rate due to a variation in operation conditions.

_ c;d
_cm
m

Pc
Pc;d

 0:5
T c;d
Tc

Once the ow rates and temperatures of the hot gas and the
coolant were known for an off-design operation, the cooling effectiveness was calculated using Eq. (6). Then, the blade metal temperature was calculated using Eq. (5).
The net power output and efciency of the gas turbine are dened as follows.

_ T  g  WC  g
_ GT W
W
m
gen
_
W

GT
gGT _
m  LHVsyngas

8
9

2.4. Power block performance

A triple pressure steam turbine bottoming cycle was used (see
Fig. 1). The major parameters of the bottoming cycle are listed in
Table 4. The combined cycle power output is dened as follows:

_ GT W
_ ST
_ CC W
W

10

2266

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

Table 4
Parameters of the bottoming cycle.
High pressure turbine inlet pressure (kPa)
Intermediate pressure turbine inlet pressure (kPa)
Low pressure turbine inlet pressure (kPa)
High pressure steam temperature (K)
Reheat steam temperature (K)
Condensing pressure (kPa)
Pinch temperature difference (K)
Isentropic efciency of turbine (%)
Gas side pressure loss at HRSG (%)

18,000
4000
300
833
833
7
10
82
3

Fig. 2 shows the simulated results along with reference data from
[26]. We adopted the 7FA compressor map embedded in GateCycle
[23]. The simulation results are in good agreement with the reference data. The deviation of the exhaust mass ow is almost negligible, and the maximum deviations of power output and thermal
efciency were only 1.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Therefore, both
the design and off-design simulation results conrmed that the
current simulation tool could provide a feasible simulation of gas
turbine operation.
3.2. Gas turbine operation without restrictions

Inlet pressure (kPa)

Outlet pressure (kPa)
Isentropic efciency (%)
Motor efciency (%)

Auxiliary air
compressor

N2
compressor

O2
compressor

101.3
1314.1
90
90

634.3
3171.6
90
90

634.3
5102.1
90
90

The steam turbine cycle power includes the power consumption of the pumps in the bottoming cycles.
The net performance of the entire system was less than the combined cycle performance because the entire system consumed considerable auxiliary power. The amount of auxiliary power depends
signicantly on system design options such as the integration degree. The power consumption of the auxiliary air compressor and
the oxygen and nitrogen compressors were calculated using the
previously determined mass ows at locations 2, 4, and 5. The assumed values of the parameters for the auxiliary components are
listed in Table 5. The total auxiliary power consumption was calculated as follows:

_ aux W
_ air;comp W
_ O ;comp W
_ N ;comp
W
2
2

11

Then, the net power output and efciency of the entire power
block were obtained by substracting the auxiliary power consumption from the combined cycle power output:

_ sys W
_ CC  W
_ aux ; g
W
sys

_ sys
W
_  LHVsyngas
m

Previous works [16,19] showed that the working condition of a

gas turbine is signicantly affected by the selection of the integration degree. A lower integration degree increases the inlet gas ow
of the turbine, and thus increases the pressure at the turbine inlet.
Therefore, a lower integration degree causes the working pressure
ratio of the compressor to rise, thereby reducing the surge margin
considerably. The present study intended to demonstrate the combined effects of syngas type and integration degree on the operability and performance of a gas turbine.
As an introductory example, the predicted working conditions
of a gas turbine fed by the four different syngases at a xed integration degree of 50% are shown on the compressor map in Fig. 3. The
ambient condition is the ISO condition (288 K, 101.3 kPa) that the
gas turbine was designed for. The ring temperature (TRIT) is also
xed at the design temperature (1600 K); i.e., all the points on the

1.3
Calcluation results

1.2

Relative variations

Table 5
Parameters of auxiliary compressors.

Reference data
Power
Exhaust mass flow

1.1

Design point

1.0

Thermal efficiency

0.9

12

Our analysis consists of two parts. The rst part had no restrictions on gas turbine operation. The general trend of gas turbine
operation and performance with respect to the syngas type and
the integration degree was examined. The only limitation was that
the compressor surge margin was greater than zero. The second
part was an analysis with practical considerations on the restrictions of the compressor and turbine operation. Combined restrictions on the allowable surge margin and turbine metal
temperature were assumed, and their effect on system performance was comparatively evaluated for various syngas fuels.

0.8
-10

-5

20

25

30

1.3
1.2

Turbine 1st vane

temperature (K)

Syngas
A

1171 K
1159 K

B
C

1156 K

PR/PR

3.1. Validation

15

Fig. 2. Validation of the off-design simulation: variation in full load performance of

the gas turbine with ambient temperature.

1.1

3. Results and discussion

10

Ambient Temperature (OC)

D
Design point

1150 K

1.0
0.9

The design point analysis was validated by the excellent agreement between the simulation and the reference design data, as
shown in Table 1. The most important point in this study was
the capability of the program to precisely simulate the performance variation at off-design operating conditions. As a validation
of the off-design simulation model, the variation in the full load
(full ring; i.e., the design TRIT) performance of the gas turbine
(GE7FA) was predicted and compared with the reference data.

0.8
0.7
0.90

0.95

1.00

1.05

Relative flow
Fig. 3. Full load conditions of the gas turbine using different syngas fuels on the
compressor working line for the case of 50% integration degree.

2267

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

30
Syngas A

Surge margin (%)

25

Syngas B
Syngas C

20

Syngas D

15
10
5
0
-5
0

20

40

60

80

100

Integration Degree (%)

Fig. 4. Variation in surge margin with integration degree.

1190
Syngas A
Syngas B
Syngas C
Syngas D

1180

Temperature (OC)

map are full load conditions. All the nitrogen from the air separation unit is supplied to the gas turbine combustor (full dilution).
The design point means the full load conditions of the gas turbine
using natural gas as fuel. It is clearly shown in Fig. 3 that the working pressure ratio of the compressor varied signicantly according
to the type of syngas fuel. As the heating value of the fuel decreased (from D to A), the gas turbine needed a larger amount of
fuel ow to maintain the same ring temperature, thus causing
the turbine inlet gas ow to increase. Then, according to the
matching between the turbine inlet and the compressor exit conditions, the compressor pressure ratio increased. Hence, syngas A,
which had the lowest heating value, exhibited the highest pressure
ratio, while syngas D showed the lowest pressure ratio. Even in this
50% integration degree, syngas A resulted in a very small surge
margin which is not usually tolerable for safe gas turbine operation. Thus, an integration degree less than this value cannot be
adopted in practice. Also indicated in Fig. 3 are the blade metal
temperatures for operation with different syngas fuels. All cases
cause the metal temperature to rise above the design temperature
(1144 K). The inuence of syngas type is explained as follows. Since
the turbine rotor inlet temperature is maintained at a constant value, the inlet gas temperature of the rst stage vane is almost constant. However, as the heating value decreases, the gas ow rate at
the rst vane inlet increases, resulting in decreased cooling effectiveness (Eq. (6)). Furthermore, the cooling air temperature also
rises due to the increased coolant pressure (i.e., the compressor
discharge pressure). As a result, as the heating value of the syngas
fuel decreases, metal overheating becomes more serious.
Figs. 4 and 5 show the combined effects of syngas type and integration degree on the compressor surge margin and the rst vane
metal temperature. It is clearly seen that the syngas type strongly
affects the operating condition. In the entire integration degree
range, surge margin decreases and metal temperature rises as
the heating value of the syngas decreases. The two problems become worse with decreasing integration degree for all syngas
types. At 100% integration degree where all the air for the ASU is
extracted from the gas turbine compressor, the surge margins of
A and B are smaller than the design margin of 20% (i.e., the compressor discharge pressure is higher) because the turbine mass
ow is greater than that of the natural gas-red case due to the
greater fuel ow. The increased turbine hot gas ow also increases
the rst vane metal temperature compared to the natural gas-red
case. However, syngases C and D exhibited larger compressor surge
margins compared to the natural gas-red case in the high integration degree regime. Note that the syngases C and D were produced
by applying the CO2 capture process to the raw syngas in the gas-

1170
1160
1150
1140
1130
0

20

40

60

80

100

Integration Degree (%)

Fig. 5. Variation in rst vane metal temperature with integration degree.

ier. Thus, much of the oxygen supplied by the compressor and the
carbon supplied by coal was extracted out of the gasier and was
not fed to the combustor. This is explained by the large difference
between the ASU air ow and the syngas ow as shown in Table 2.
As the purity of the hydrogen became higher (from C to D), the
fraction of the extracted gas from the gasier increased, and thus
the turbine inlet ow rates decreased to a greater degree. Due to
this ow extraction, the compressor discharge pressure was lower
than that of the natural gas-red case in the high integration degree regime, resulting in a greater surge margin.
A lower integration degree causes a reduction in surge margin
and an increase in turbine metal temperature due to increased turbine ow, which is the same trend as in previous studies [16,19]. In
fuels C and D, a positive surge margin is still left even at 0% integration degree. In particular, the pure hydrogen case may allow more
than 5% surge margin at 0% integration degree. On the other hand,
fuels A and B do not allow a positive surge margin at near-zero
integration degrees. As the heating value of the syngas decreases,
the value of the lowest realizable integration degree, which guarantees a minimum surge margin, becomes higher. For example, if
we assume that a minimum surge margin of 5% should be ensured
for all circumstances, the lowest obtainable integration degrees are
55% and 30% for syngases A and B, respectively. At these operating
conditions, the rst vane metal temperature exceeds the design value by about 25 K. This overheating may reduce blade lifetime
considerably because the lifetime decays exponentially with
increasing temperature [30]. With fuels C and D, even though the
gas turbine is still operable at very high integration degrees, the
turbine metal overheating problem still exists and thus should be
alleviated.
Fig. 6 shows the net gas turbine power output and efciency. A
larger turbine ow is afrmative in terms of gas turbine power output [16,19]. Therefore, for all fuels, a reduced integration degree
yields a larger power output. The effect of syngas heating value
can be similarly understood. A lower syngas heating value causes
an increase in turbine ow, thus leading to a larger gas turbine
power output. Hence, fuels A and B generally produce more power
output than fuels C and D. In fuels C and D, since the hydrogen content of the fuel is very high, the combustion gas contains considerable H2O. This is advantageous in terms of turbine power because
the specic heat of H2O is higher than the specic heats of other
combustion gas components. This explains the relatively small
power gap between fuel C and B as shown in Fig. 6. The major
parameter that governs gas turbine efciency is the pressure ratio.
Therefore, a lower integration degree or a lower fuel heating value
leads to higher gas turbine efciency due to an increased pressure
ratio.

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

250

50

200

45

150

40

heated. As a result, the limiting (lowest obtainable) integration degree increases as the syngas heating value decreases. In other
words, operable integration degree range decreases as the syngas
heating value decreases.

(%)

GT

GT

(MW)

2268

Syngas A

100

35

Syngas B
Syngas C
Syngas D

30

50
0

20

40

60

80

100

Integration Degree (%)

Fig. 6. Variations in gas turbine power output and efciency with integration
degree.

Fig. 7 shows the net system performance. The steam turbine

power increases with decreasing integration degree in proportion
to the increased gas ow, but the auxiliary power consumption
also increases because of the increased demand of the air supply
from the auxiliary compressor. Therefore, the increase in the net
system power by a reduction in the integration degree is not as
large as the increase in the gas turbine power output. For example,
in fuel C, the benet of a net system power output with 0% integration degree over 100% integration degree is about 43 MW, while
the benet in the gas turbine power is 72 MW. The increased turbine gas ow with decreasing syngas heating value is positive in
terms of the steam turbine power output. As a result, the net system power output and efciency also increase with decreasing
syngas heating value. With regard to the power increase, mechanical issues, such as limits of generator capacity, blade stress and
thrust bearing, might also be examined. Since this study intended
to present thermodynamic performance capacities associated with
fuel change, mechanical issues were not considered in detail.
Mechanical reinforcements or redesign of critical components
might be required if the power increase exceeds the design margin,
but their effects on thermodynamic performance would be very
limited.
In summary, as the heating value of the syngas decreases, greater net system power output and efciency is possible, but the surge
margin reduces and the turbine metal becomes increasingly over-

300

55

3.3. Restrictions on compressor and turbine operation

The operation of gas turbines in IGCC plants has two critical issues: operational safety of the compressor associated with reduced
surge margin, and signicantly increased turbine metal temperature [19]. We showed another important issue related to the syngas type as discussed in the previous section: a lower fuel
heating value is favorable in terms of thermodynamic performance, but is negative with respect to these two problems. The
previous study [19] demonstrated the possibility of mitigating
the two problems by modulating gas turbine parameters such as
ring temperature, nitrogen ow and turbine coolant ow. The
problem of overheating the turbine metal can be prevented by
reducing the ring temperature. Thus, for any working environment (integration degree and syngas type), ring temperature
can be modulated to meet a desired blade temperature. The reduction of ring temperature also has the advantage of naturally
decreasing the compressor discharge pressure. Fig. 8 shows an
example of the effect of reducing ring temperature to keep the
rst vane metal temperature at the design value on the working
condition of compressor for syngas B. At all integration degrees,
the blade overheating problem is solved and the surge margin improves. However, the surge margin in the low integration degree
range is still too small. The situation is even worse with syngas
A: even at a relatively moderate integration degree (e.g. 50%), the
operating pressure closely approaches or exceeds the surge point.
The ring temperature may be further decreased to hold the surge
margin at a safe value in the low integration degree range. However, this results in too great a penalty in gas turbine power output
[19]. Accordingly, a more practical option is to maintain an allowable surge margin over the entire integration degree range using a
combined modulation of multiple parameters.
As a case study, a surge margin of 10% was considered to be a
minimum value below which the gas turbine should not operate,
as described in [19]. Fig. 9 shows the operating strategy of the
gas turbine using syngas A in terms of compressor surge margin
and ring temperature. The strategy was intended to solve both
the turbine overheating problem and the surge problem by simultaneously modulating the ring temperature and the nitrogen ow
to the combustor. In regime a, the ring temperature is modulated to produce the design metal temperature of the rst stage
vane. In that region, the surge margin decreases as the integration

280

1.3

54

52

200
51
180

Syngas A
Syngas B

Syngas C
Syngas D

20

40

60

80

100

Integration Degree (%)

50%
75%
100%

0.9

operation with a fixed firing temperature

operation with a fixed 1st vane metal temperature

50
0

Integration
degree

0.8

160

0%
25%

1.1

PR/PRd

220

(%)

sys

240

sys

1.2
53

(MW)

260

0.7
0.90

0.95

1.00

1.05

Relative flow
Fig. 7. Variations in net system power output and efciency with integration
degree.

Fig. 8. Effect of ring temperature reduction on compressor operation for syngas B.

2269

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

20

1600

350

Surge margin

300

Surge margin (%)

15
1580
10
1570
a

Modulation of
diluting nitrogen

modlation of
firing temp.

1560

Firing temperature (K)

1590

250

Power (MW)

Firing temperature

200
150

Gas turbine power

Combined cycle power

100

Auxiliary power consumption

50
0
0

0
0

25

50

75

25

1550
100

50

75

100

Integration degree (%)

Integration degree (%)

Fig. 9. Surge margin and ring temperature setting for a safe gas turbine operation
(syngas A).

degree decreases. Below an integration degree such that the surge

margin reaches the minimum value of 10%, the turbine metal temperature is still maintained as constant by keeping the ring temperature. At the same time, the surge margin is forced to be
maintained at 10% by modulating the nitrogen ow. By reducing
the nitrogen ow in regime b, the net turbine inlet ow is kept
constant to maintain the target surge margin. Modulation of turbine coolant ow would provide a similar effect of keeping the target surge margin, and could also yield higher engine performance
[19], but this could require a full revision of the engine components
such as the secondary air system and cooled turbine blades. Thus,
in this study, only the nitrogen ow modulation was adopted to
minimize engine modication.
Fig. 10 shows the variations in the ow rates of the turbine inlet
gas and the supplied syngas for syngas A. In regime a where the
ring temperature is reduced with decreasing integration degree,
the gas ow to the turbine increased with decreasing integration
degree because the amount of air supplied to the ASU by the auxiliary compressor increases. In regime b, the turbine inlet gas ow
remained constant while the fuel supply decreased as the integration degree decreased. Fig. 11 shows the variations of powers with
respect to the integration degree. In regime a, the gas turbine
power output increases with decreasing integration degree. This
means that even though the ring temperature decreases, the increased turbine gas ow dominates. In regime b, gas turbine
power did not increase with decreasing integration degree. It re-

Fig. 11. Variations in power outputs and auxiliary power consumption with
integration degree for the operation with restrictions (syngas A).

mained effectively unchanged because both the ring temperature

and turbine gas ow remained constant. The combined cycle
power output showed a pattern similar to the gas turbine power.
The auxiliary power consumption increased with decreasing integration degree because the air supply from the auxiliary compressor increased. The resulting net system power output and
efciency are shown in Fig. 12. The nitrogen modulation reduced
the net system power output as the integration degree decreased
in surge-controlled regime b because the gas turbine power output remained nearly constant, but the auxiliary power consumption still increased. The net system efciency increased slightly
as the integration degree decreased in regime a. However, in regime b, efciency decreased with decreasing integration degree.
Therefore, the net system power output and efciency have a peak
value at the boundary of the two regimes.
Similar calculations under the restrictions of the blade temperature and surge margin were carried out for the other three syngas
cases, and Figs. 13 and 14 show net system performance for all
syngas cases together. The results of the unrestricted operations
shown in Fig. 7 are also shown as dotted lines for comparison.
All four cases have peak values, but the corresponding integration
degrees are quite different. The peak point moved to a lower integration degree range as the fuel heating values decreased. This is
quite natural because unrestricted operation gives a larger surge
margin for a higher fuel heating value over the entire integration
degree range (Fig. 4). Even in regime a, power output of the restricted operation is smaller compared to the unrestricted opera-

430

52.0

300

420

System efficiency

290

60

390

58
Turbine inlet gas flow

380

Power (MW)

400

System power

270

250

370

240
25

51.0

260

56

Syngas flow

51.5

280

Efficiency (%)

62

410

Syngas flow (kg/s)

Turbine inlet gas flow (kg/s)

64

50

75

100

Integration degree (%)

Fig. 10. Variations in turbine inlet gas ow and syngas fuel ow with integration
degree for the operation with restrictions (syngas A).

25

50

75

50.5
100

Integration degree (%)

Fig. 12. Variations in net system power output and efciency with integration
degree for the operation with restrictions (syngas A).

2270

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

System power (MW)

320

The analysis described in this section demonstrates that there is

an optimal integration degree, considering practical restrictions on
the gas turbine operation. The optimal point is the peak performance point and is recommended for design. The optimal integration degree increases with decreasing syngas heating value. Table 6
summarizes the optimal performance of all syngas cases. Fuel A
has the largest peak power output. It exhibits a peak power output
that is 12.8 MW greater than fuel D. This means that the practical
restrictions on the gas turbine components have a leveling effect
on the obtainable performance among different syngas fuels.

dotted lines : GT operation without restrictions

solid lines : GT operation with restrictions

300
280
260
240
Sygnas
Syngas
Syngas
Syngas

220

A
B
C
D

200
0

25

50

75

4. Conclusion

100

Integration degree (%)

Fig. 13. Comparison of net system power output among various syngas cases for
the operation with restrictions.

System efficiency (%)

53.0
dotted lines : GT operation without restrictions
solid lines : GT operation with restrictions

52.5
52.0
51.5
51.0

Syngas
Syngas
Syngas
Syngas

50.5

A
B
C
D

50.0
0

25

50

75

100

Integration degree (%)

Fig. 14. Comparison of net system efciency among various syngas cases for the
operation with restrictions.

Table 6
Peak system performance under restrictions of compressor surge and turbine metal
temperature.
Syngas

Integration degree (%)

Gas turbine power output (MW)
Combined cycle power output (MW)
Auxiliary power consumption (MW)
Net system power output (MW)
Net system efciency (%)

74
197.5
296.5
31.1
265.4
51.5

56
196.3
293.3
33.3
260.2
51.5

33
206.2
299.3
41.8
257.5
51.3

10
206.0
298.6
46.0
252.6
51.0

tion. However, a much greater penalty in power output was observed in regime b. It is interesting to note that the net power outputs of all cases converged to a similar level as the integration
degree approached zero. As a result, the difference in the net power
outputs of the unrestricted and restricted operations became
greater as the fuel heating value decreased. For example, at 50%
integration degree, the power penalties of fuels A, B, C, and D are
26.9, 13.4, 8.9, and 4.2 MW, respectively. If we extrapolate the performance of fuels A and B up to 0% integration degree (with the assumed design surge margin of 20%, the gas turbine cannot operate
without the restrictions using fuels A or B), the power penalties are
roughly 57 and 40 MW for A and B, respectively. The power penalties for C and D at 0% integration degree are 29.9 and 16.8 MW,
respectively. The efciency showed a trend similar to the power
output. However, the efciency differences among the four cases
are not considerable, and the efciency penalty from the unrestricted operation remains within one percentage point.

We investigated the inuence of syngas type on the performance of a gas turbine and the entire power block of an IGCC plant.
As the heating value of the syngas decreased, a greater net system
power output and efciency was possible due to increased turbine
mass ow; however, the gas turbine is more vulnerable to compressor surge and the blade metal became increasingly overheated.
As a result, the limiting (lowest obtainable) integration degree became higher as the syngas heating value decreased, i.e. the operable integration degree range decreased with decreasing heating
value.
The problems of compressor surge margin reduction and turbine metal overheating can be solved by a combination of reductions in the ring temperature and the nitrogen ow to the
combustor. With these restrictions, the net system power output
and efciency increased as the integration degree decreased until
the surge margin control began. After this peak point, the system
performance decreased with decreasing integration degree. The
net power outputs of all fuel cases converged to a similar level as
the integration degree approached zero. As a result, the difference
in the net power outputs of unrestricted and restricted operation
became larger as the fuel heating value decreased. The optimal
integration degree, which shows the greatest net system power
output and efciency, increased with decreasing syngas heating
value. The variation in net system efciency among the different
syngas types is marginal. The restrictions on the gas turbine components have a leveling effect on the obtainable performance
among different syngas fuels.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Basic Research Program
through the National Research Foundation of KOREA (NRF) funded
by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (20090073734).
References
[1] Longwell JP, Rubint ES, Wilson J. Coal: energy for the future. Energy Combust
1995;22:269360.
[2] Dennis RA, Shelton WW, Le P. Development of baseline performance values for
turbines in existing IGCC applications. ASME paper GT2007-28096; 2007.
[3] Farmer R, editor. Status of active IGCC plant projects, vol. 39, No. 1. Gas Turbine
World; 2009. p. 2634.
[4] Parkinson G. OEMs getting ready for coal gasication, vol. 45. Turbomachinery
International; 2004. p. 68.
[5] Farmer R. GE reference plant targeting COE parity with SPCP plants, vol. 37, No.
1. Gas Turbine World; 2007. p. 3741.
[6] Farmer R, editor. Mitsubishi 250 MW demo plant on target for mid-2007
testing, vol. 37, No. 1. Gas Turbine World; 2007. p. 415.
[7] Farmer R, editor. Siemens reference plant rated 630 MW net 38% HHV
efciency, vol. 37, No. 1. Gas Turbine World; 2007. p. 4650.
[8] Martin G, Olaf von M, Dorit R, Werner G, Gerhard B, Bernd M. Constructability
study on a German reference IGCC power plant with and without CO2-capture
for hard coal and lignite. Energy Convers Manage 2010;51:217987.
[9] Brdar RD, Jones RM. GE IGCC technology and experience with advanced gas
turbines. GE Power Systems, GER-4207; 2000.

Y.S. Kim et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 22622271

[10] Bradley T, Fadok J. Advanced hydrogen turbine development update. ASME
paper GT2009-59105; 2009.
[11] Kanniche M, Bouallou C. CO2 capture study in advanced integrated gasication
combined cycle. Appl Therm Eng 2007;27:2693702.
[12] Descamps C, Bouallou C, Kanniche M. Efciency of an integrated gasication
combined cycle (IGCC) power plant including CO2 removal. Energy
2008;33:87481.
[13] Dennis RA, Harp R. Overview of the US department of energys ofce of fossil
energy advanced turbine program for coal based power systems with carbon
capture. ASME paper GT2007-28338; 2007.
[14] Julianne MK. Fossil energy power plant desk reference. DOE/NETL-2007;1282.
[15] Costas C, Ioannis H, Andreas P. Assessment of integrated gasication combined
cycle technology competitiveness. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2008;12:
245264.
[16] Lee JJ, Kim YS, Cha KS, Kim TS, Sohn JL, Joo YJ. Inuence of system integration
options on the performance of an integrated gasication combined cycle
power plant. Appl Energy 2009;86:178896.
[17] Rieger M, Pardemann R, Rauchfub H, Meyer B. Effects of ASU integration on
IGCC performance and gas turbine operation. VGB Power Technol 2008;88:
1027.
[18] Oluyede EO, Phillips JN. Fundamental impact of ring syngas in gas turbines.
ASME paper 2007-27385; 2007.
[19] Kim YS, Lee JJ, Cha KS, Kim TS, Sohn JL, Joo YJ. Performance analysis of a
syngas-fed gas turbine considering the operating limitations of its
components. Appl Energy 2010;87:160211.

2271

[20] Ligang Z, Edward F. Comparison of shell, texaco, BGL and KRW gasiers as part
of IGCC plant computer simulations. Energy Convers Manage 2005;46:
176779.
[21] Osamu S, Akira Y, Yoshinori K. The development of advanced energy
technologies in Japan IGCC: a key technology for the 21st century. Energy
Convers Manage 2002;43:122133.
[22] Paolo C, Stefano C, Thomas K, Robert W. Co-production of hydrogen, electricity
and CO2 from coal with commercially ready technology, part A: performance
and emissions. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2007;30:74767.
[23] GE Power-Enter Software. GateCycle ver 6.0; 2006.
[24] Hoffmann J, Tennant J, Stiegel GJ. Comparison of Pratt and Whitney
Rocketdyne IGCC and commercial IGCC performance. DOE/NETL-401/062006.
[25] Farmer R, editor. Gas turbine world, handbook. Pequot Publishing Inc.; 2009.
[26] Brooks FJ. GE gas turbine performance characteristics. General Electric Report
GER-3567H.
[27] Palmer CA, Erbes MR. Simulation methods used to analyze the performance of
the GE PG6541B gas turbines utilizing low heating value fuels. ASME IGTI
Cogen-Turbo94, vol. 9; 1994. p. 33746.
[28] Kim TS, Ro ST. Comparative evaluation of the effect of turbine conguration on
the performance of heavy-duty gas turbines. ASME paper 95-GT-334; 1995.
[29] Consonni S, Lozza G, Macchi E. Turbomachinery and off-design aspects in
steam-injected gas cycles. In: 23rd Intersociety energy conversion engineering
conference, vol. 4; 1983. p. 99108.
[30] Boyce MP. Gas turbine engineering handbook, 2nd ed. Houston: Gulf
Professional Publishing; 2002. p. 41425.