Improved combustion efficiency of a [formula omitted] steam generator for spinning reserve application

Abstract

Within the last ten years, DLR has proposed, developed and tested an alternative to conventional control methods for spinning reserve, such as life steam throttling and/or low pressure preheater shut-down, the spontaneous generation of additional steam formed by chemical reaction from stoichiometric mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen. In the so-called H 2 O 2 steam generator, the temperature of the reactant, in the ideal case pure steam, is reduced by injection of preheated feed water to correspond exactly with the temperature level of the steam condition at the point of injection into the power plant process. Initially, at DLR the main emphasis was laid on the development of the device, i.e. the closed loop control of all mass flow rates, steam quality and temperature, ignition and optimized start-up behavior of pressure and temperature. During 1994, DLR and Dasa carried out an experimental program at Lampoldshausen to improve the combustion efficiency of the device by applying Dasa's state-of-the-art rocket engine technology for design and fabrication of the propellant injection system. The experimental results achieved through combining the experimental version of the steam generator and the closed loop control system from DLR and the modified propellant injection system from Dasa clearly show that the technical problems in establishing a spinning reserve system based on a H 2 O 2 steam generator can be overcome.