Vol. 23,No. 8, pp.

695-704,1998
ht. .I. Hydrogen Energy,
0 1998InternationalAssociationfor HydrogenEnergy
Pergamon ElsevierScienceLtd
All rightsreserved.Printedin Great Britain
PII: s0360-319!497)00115-8 036&3199/98 $19.00+0.00

ENGINE CONTROL AND LOW-NO, COMBUSTION FOR HYDROGEN

FUELLED AIRCRAFT GAS TURBINES

G. DAHL AND F. SUTTROP

Fachhochschule Aachen, Goethestr. 1, 52064Aachen, Germany

Abstract-Under the project leadership of Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus the manufacturers AlliedSignal Aerospace
and Bodenseewerk Geriitetechnik together with the Fachhochschule Aachen initiated by R&D-programme to dem-
onstrate safe engine control and low pollution combustion in a hydrogen fuelled Auxiliary Power Unit GTCP 36-
300. The joint efforts are based on spin offs from three sources: (1) development of a digital and pneumatic engine
control equipment for gaseous fuels by BGT together with FH Aachen, partly funded by the-German-R&an
CRYOPLANE nroiect. (2) FH Aachen’s develonment of the nrincinle of micro-mix diffusive combustion of hvdroaen.
where substantial r&iu&&s of the NO,-emissions were achieved, funded by the Ministry of Scienceand Research of
Northrhine-Westphalia and the Euro-Quebec Hydro-Hydrogen Pilot Project (EQHHPP), and (3) early successful
tests with the KHD T216 gas turbine engine running on hydrogen (FH, Aachen, 1992).Meanwhile the Airbus A320
APU GTCP 36-300was converted to hydrogen operation and successfullytested (FH Aachen, 1996).Based on these
results, a new micro-mix cumbustor configuration was developed which enabled further NO=-emissions reduction.
The new configuration has still not been tested in the engine. 0 1998International Association for Hydrogen Energy

INTRODUCTION These two questions have beenconsidered by the Fach-

hochschule Aachen (FHA) since 1988,partly funded by
In the past, sporadic activities in the USA and in Russia the Ministry of Science and Research of Northrhine-
were concerned with hydrogen powered aircraft oper- Westphalia (MWF), and by Bodenseewerk Ger-
ation [l-S]. These early efforts were partially initiated on atetechnik tfberlingen (BGT). In 1992,the small shaft gas
the background of the OPEC crude oil price dictation of turbine engine KHD T216 was supplied with modified
1973.More recently, the expected depletion of fossil fuel control and fuel metering equipment to enable operation
resourcesas well as environmental aspectsbecameurgent with gaseous hydrogen [13]. Safe control of the engine
reasons to continue R & D work towards introduction running on hydrogen was demonstrated. Low NO,-emis-
of hydrogen energy into air traffic [6, 71.While the feasi- sions were achieved by application of the micro-mix
bility of hydrogen use in future aircraft was demon- diffusive combustion of hydrogen. Subsequently, further
strated, a number of detail questions have yet to be technology development was possible when FHA joined
answered. Main components of an airborne hydrogen the projects CRYOPLANE and EQHHPP [6, 71.
propulsion system are: cryogenic tanks and fuel pumps, In July 1994, FHA agreed with DASA, BGT, ASA
evaporator, HZmetering valves, engine with (modified) and Sundstrand to convert the A320 APU GTCP 36-300
combustion chamber and engine control units. Both the to hydrogen operation in order to study open questions
improvement of the component operation characteristics in more detail in a modern engine environment. This
as well as the investigation of interdependent component work again is supported by MWF. The present report
behaviour demand more R & D activities. summarizes results from the current investigations.
Two typical questions which need further con-
sideration and innovative efforts are: How can hydrogen
be burned under aircraft gas turbine conditions with RESULTS
minimum possible NO,-emissions while the risk of flash The principle of micro-mix diffusive combustion of hydro-
back (as possible in pre-mix combustion systems)is elim-
gen
inated? How may a compressible gaseousfuel as hydro-
gen be persuaded to allow the rapid and precise changes As far as we can foresee technological future aircraft
of engine power level as necessitatedby aircraft operation development, there is nothing to replace the gas turbine
conditions? engine as a reliable, efficient, long-life and light-weight

695
696 G. DAHL and F. SUTTROP

propulsion system. Unfortunately, the thermodynamic Sinter Metal

cycle of the engine demands combustion processesat ExhausL
relatively high temperature levels, which necessarily fav- Gas
ours the formation of the oxides of nitrogen (NO,.). In
principle, this is also valid if hydrogen will be chosen as Air
fuel, in which casethe NO,-emissions would be the only Exhaust
relevant substancesto pollute the environment. However,
Gas -
it is known that, under gas turbine combustion
conditions, lean burning reactors, if operated well stirred, Air
emit lessoxides of nitrogen than those burning with poor
mixing quality [S]. Last generation utility gas turbines, Exhaust
fired with pre-mixed (and hence perfectly stirred) natural .. _ .. I . . Gas *
gas, demonstrated exhaust NO,-levels below 10 ppm at
full load. In the caseof natural gas, the risk of upstream Mounting Plate
propagation of the burning zone in the combustible mix- Fig. 1. Micro-mix burner design(matrix-type).Example:slot
ture is low. Safe engine operation under pre-mix com- injection of secondaryair.
bustion conditions was demonstrated. Also for hydrogen
combustion pre-mixing would be very desirable from the
low-NO, point of view. However, due to the high reac-
tivity of hydrogen-air mixtures, the risk of flashback and
premature burning is considerably greater than for natu- sionaf burners from which Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 demonstrate
ral gas. examples.Both configurations may be classified to belong
As a consequence, FHA developed the principle of a to the families of regular diffusion flame burners or
“miniaturized” diffusive combustion (“micro-mix com- inverted diffusion flame burners (where multiple jet air is
bustion”) of hydrogen where the number of local mixing injected into a low speed hydrogen atmosphere). The
zones between hydrogen and air is drastically increased configuration of Fig. 1 is an example for the latter design
compared with conventional gas turbine burner designs. principle.
The micro-mix combustion may be characterized as an Fig. 3 (taken from [ 121)comparesNO,-emission values
attempt to minimize the scale of mixing and to maximize from two micro-mix designs with measured pre-mix
the mixing intensity. hydrogen combustion results. The burners were tested on
The miniaturization of the scale appears, in principle, an atmospheric rig without air preheating. Plotted are
to be unlimited and is confined only by possibilities and the exhaust gas mole-fractions of NO, as determined for
costs of manufacture. If it would be possible to scale the the GTCP 36-300 micro-mix combustor (full squares,
designs down to molecular dimensions, the result would which correspond to engine operation conditions as
be a perfectly stirred or homogeneously mixed system, shown in Fig. 12) NO,-emissions of an improved micro-
as in the case of pre-mix combustion of hydrogen, but mix combustor configuration (stars) and the emissions of
avoiding the risk of flash back. In practical micro-mix a pre-mix hydrogen burner (full triangles), which rep-
combustors there will burn thousands of small diffusion resent a lower limit for the reduction of NO, in the
flamelets instead of ten to hundred flames in conventional exhaust gas. Fig. 3 indicates that the improved micro-mix
combustor designs. combustor configuration-which belongs to the family
The maximization of mixing intensity, however, is of regular diffusion flame burners-promises NO,-levels
clearly limited by the pressure loss condition of modern (stars) somewhere in between the reduced emissions as
gas turbine combustors, where the losses should not already demonstrated by engine runs (full squares) and
exceedtypically 3 to 4 percent. This condition limits the the limiting optimum (full triangles). The remaining mar-
flow energy available for stirring or mixing processes. gin for further improvements is only small. In addition,
Nevertheless are the chosen flow geometriesof significant more perfectly stirred combustion systemswould lead to
importance for the penetration speed of hydrogen and problems of flame stability and combustion efficiency at
air, where turbulence generation and eddy break down part load or idle operation conditions.
should rapidly mix off the local ,stoichiometric com- As already stated above, previous micro-mix burner
bustion zones of the diffusion flamelets, thus reducing the configurations have successfully been applied to convert
local residencetimes at high temperature levels which are two existing gas turbine combustors from kerosene to
basically responsible for gas phase thermal NO,-for- hydrogen operation. In 1992,a micro-mix combustor was
mation [9]. manufactured for the small shaft turbine engine KHD
The fundamental aspects of the micro-mix diffusive T216. Figure 4 shows engine test results indicating that
combustion principle of hydrogen have been described NO,-levels could be reduced considerably.
previously in more detail [lo]. The micro-mix burners A micro-mix combustor according to the principle of
may be realized in a great variety of designs and have inverted hydrogen diffusion flames was designed, manu-
been studied experimentally in numerous variations [ 111. factured and tested for the A320 APU GTCP 36-300
Basically, two classes of micro-mix burners have been (seeFig. 5). The respective NO,-emissions reduction was
developed: the matrix-type burners and the two-dimen- determined testing the combustor on the atmospheric rig
 ENGINE CONTROL AND LOW-NO, COMBUSTION 697

Air
Air

i i i i i i i
Fig. 2. Micro-mix burner design (two-dimensional)

Air inlet temperature: 300 K

Atmospheric inlet pressure conditions

operational range of modem gas turbines

/

I I I .1> I ,I,,,,.,

0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 I.0 1.1

Equivalence ratio @
- l - Original kerosene combustor of tha APU GTCP 36-300
-a- Present micro-mix mmbustor of the APU GTCP 36300 (Hydrogen)
-I+ Improved mioro-mlx cmnbustor (Hydrogen)
-A- Pra-mix combustion of hydrogen
Fig. 3. Micro-mix and pre-mix hydrogen combustion NO,-levels (from [12]), compared with kerosene combustion

(Fig. 6) as well as under engine operation conditions (Fig. The engine and the engine control system
12, seethe squares).
The next step will be to apply the improved micro-mix The auxiliary power unit (APU) GTCP36-300 built by
combustion system (following the principle of regular AlliedSignal is being used for the experimental work. The
diffusion flames, see stars in Fig. 3) to the design of a single shaft engine is instalIed in different aircrafts, such
GTCP 36-300 combustor for demonstration of further as the AIRBUS A 320 and provides electrical and pneu-
NO,-reduction capabilities under engine operation con- matic power to the aircraft via a generator and an extra
ditions. load compressor. The rotor group of the engine gas gen-
698 G. DAHL and F. SUTTROP

35

Original flame tube,

kerosene operation

Original flame tube,

H2-operation

Micro-mix -burner
diffusive H2-combustior-i

5- I
IL m-
0 I I I
0 10 20 30 40
Shaftpower [kw
Fig. 4. Reduction of NO,-emissions by converting a KHD T216 gas turbine to micro-mix combustion of hydrogen.

Original combustor

Hn-micro-mix combustor

Fig. 5. Micro-mix combustion system for the A320 APU GTCP 36-300.

erator consists of a single stage radial compressor and ent engine and control unit parameters for correct func-
a single stage radial turbine. An annular combustion tions.
chamber provides the energy for the turbine by burning The fuel itself is also the hydraulic medium for the load
the kerosene, sprayed into the engine via 6 duplex fuel compressor guide vane servo-motor.
nozzles.
A digital controller (engine control box-ECB), built by Performance of the engine and thefuel metering system
BODENSEE-WERK controls the engine. The task of
the controller is to keep the engine speed constant for First of all the steady state performance data of the
each load condition by varying the fuel quantity (kero- original engine with kerosene as fuel have to be measured
sene), the load compressor guide vanes and the surge to get basic data for later comparison.
control valve. Moreover, the ECB has to monitor differ- Due to the experience, made in the past [13, 141, one
 ENGINE CONTROL AND LOW-NO, COMBUSTION 699

Original flame tuba,

kerosene operation

Original flame tube,

H2-operation

Micro-mix -burner,
diffusive H2-combustion

Mass flow factor [ kg*& /(s*m’ bar)]

Equivalence ratio: + = 0.34 for kerosene I$ = 0.29 for hydrogen

( for equal heat release )
Combustion inlet temperature: T3 = 288 K
Fig. 6. NO,-level reduction of a GTCP 36-300 due to application of the micro-mix diffusive hydrogen combustion (results derived
from atmospheric combustor rig tests).

has to be familiar with the engine dynamic behaviour, if verify this is to leave the systemwith all its functions, and
there will be a modification in the controlled system- inject the fuel not into the combustion chamber but into
and the use of hydrogen instead of kerosene means a an external system.The change of the combustion cham-
great modification. ber itself will be done in two steps:
In Fig. 7 the change of the speedafter a definite jump in
the fuel is plotted (uncontrolled mode). This uncontrolled --exchange of the kerosene nozzle to gaseousones
acceleration characterizes the dynamics of the engine and -installation for the micro-mix diffusive combustion
it can be expressed as a second order filter. A similar chamber.
measurement has to be done to get the dynamic behav-
iour of the fuel metering system. The compressibility of Secondly a new fuel metering system for gaseoushydro-
the gaseoushydrogen influences this behaviour: the time
gen has to be designed and built (Fig. 8). Besidesthe fuel
constant of the change in the mass flow varies as a func-
tion of the pipe volume between the metering valve and metering valve and the shut off valve there are other
the nozzles as well as of the direction of the change. different valves, which are important from a safety point
Nevertheless a second order filter will provide an of view: it is necessaryto rinse the fuel pipes before and
adequate solution. after each engine run with nitrogen. Due to the dynamic
Using the mathematical equations for these filters as aof the engine (seeFig. 7) a very fast metering valve was
very simple model for the controlled system the gain designed and built with a full scale movement within less
factors of the control loop, e.g. a proportional-integral-than one second.
differential (PID) loop can be calculated. Last but not least, the control-software of the digital
controller has to be modified. This has to be done very
Engine andjiiel control system modification carefully, becausethe control software is imbedded into
the total software, which includes not only the control-
To run the engine with hydrogen instead of kerosene software (ignition, acceleration to full engine speed,close
several modifications have to be done. First of all there loop control for all engine loads) but also the load com-
is no need for kerosene in the combustion chamber but pressor actuator and the surge-valve control, the moni-
the kerosene is necessary as hydraulic medium for the toring of the engine, its accessoriesand of the controller
load compressor guide vane actuator. The easiestway to itself as well as the power up test of all involved systems.
700 G. DAHL and F. SUTTROP

FTM

-98

-98

I I I I I - 95
85
380 385 370 375 380 385 390
RUNTIME [s]

Fig. 7. APU GTCP 36-300enginedynamicbehavior.

1 - pressure reducer 5 - pressure sensor

2 - solenoid valve 6 - temperature sensor
3 - control valve 7 - flow sensor
4- overpressure valve
Fig. 8. Hydrogenfuel meteringunit.

Zgnition tests changes in the gaseousvolume-on one side there is the

compressor on the other side the turbine-one has to be
Mostly the first contact with hydrogen takes place at very careful using hydrogen as fuel in a gas turbine.
school, when the teacher explains oxyhydrogen gas. Due By this the knowledge of the air mass flow and the
to this experienceand due to the fact, that the combustion corresponding fuel flow at the point of ignition will be
chamber of a gas turbine is not really open for sudden very helpful. The necessaryhydrogen massflow as a func-
 ENGINE CONTROL AND LOW-NO, COMBUSTION 701

120- -A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A -20

IOO- E
80- -15 8

- 2
m
80- -10
4- AIR MASS FLOW
40- --A-- SPEED
-5
20-

0 1'1'1 0 1'1'1'1 0 1 'I' 0

0 2 4 8 8 10 12 14 18 18 20
RUNTIME [S]
Fig. 9. Air mass flow and engine speed vs. time.

100

80

70 REF-TEMP.,-,

Fig. IO. Speed, fuel demand (upper figure), inlet guide vanes (load), EGT (lower figure) vs. time (hydrogen fueled test run).

tion of engine speed is directly proportional to the kero- mass related heats of combustion of the two propellants,
sene mass flow and there is no problem to measure this converting the engine from kerosene to hydrogen means
flow with the necessary accuracy. Due to the different a reduction of the fuel mass flow by the factor 0.36.
702 G. DAHL and F. SUTTROP

More problems appear measuring the air mass flow heavy load on the compressor and the turbine can be
due to the fact, that on one side this flow changes very possible.
rapidly with engine speed(Fig. 9), on the other side it is The engine speedand temperature during this ignition
well known, that the measurement of small air massflow test and an acceleration of the engine upto 30% speedis
in a gas turbine engine is nearly impossible. shown in Fig. 10.
However, due to the extremely high reactivity of hydro-
gen, the ignition will take place at very low fuel to air Performance run with emission measurement
ratios, so that if only a small percentage of the above
calculated hydrogen will spreadinto the burning chamber After some optimization work, it was possible to run
a smooth ignition will take place. In caseof a time delay the engine fully loaded with single gaseousnozzles as well
between the fuel injection and the ignition a rapid but as with the micro-mix combustor. Figure 11 shows speed
short pressure increase in the burning chamber causing a and fuel demand as well as IGV-position (load com-

110 53

100 5,O

90 4,5

80 490

70 3,5 2

~60 3.0 9

295 50

185

13
\ On5

90

800 80

80 ti
B

-125 iI 125 250 375 500 625 750 075 1000112512501375 15001625
RUNTIME [s]

Fig. 11. Speed, full demand (upper figure), inlet guide vanes (load), EGT (lower figure) vs. time (hydrogen fueled test run).
 ENGINE CONTROL AND LOW-NO, COMBUSTION

160

GENERATOR INSERTED

LOAD-COMPRESSOR

20 -
0
0 I ’ I ’ I ’ I ’ I ’ I ’ 1 ’ 1'1'1'
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275
TOTAL ENGINE LOAD [kWj

OPERATIONAL CONFIGURATIONS OF THE APU GTCP 36-300-A

-A- TEST RUN NO. 146: ENGINE OPERATION WITH KEROSENE

-O- TEST RUN NO. 159: ENGINE OPERATION WITH H,-GAS-NOZZLES INSTEAD OF
KEROSENE NOZZLES ( NO FURTHER COMBUSTOR MODIFICATION )

-O- TEST RUN NO. 176: ENGINE OPERATION WITH MICRO-MIX HYDROGEN COMBUSTOR
( NOVEMBER, 251996 )
Fig. 12. NO,-level reduction under engine operation conditions.

pressor load) and exhaust gas temperature versus engine Safe hydrogen metering and engine control under the
run time during a test run using the micro-mix combus- conditions of a gaseous fuel was demonstrated. A sub-
tor. After 820 seconds the engine provides power for stantial reduction of the engine’s NO,-emissions by appli-
different additional generator loads. It is obvious, that cation of the micro-mix diffusive combustion of hydrogen
the new software implemented in the FADEC system of could be achieved. It should be stressed that diffusive
BGT controls the engine in a stable manner using the burning is inherently safe against flash back reducing the
new metering system. In Fig. 12 the NO,-emission values risk of engine failure.
for the different fuels and fuel systems are plotted. The possibility of rapid hydrogen fuel metering accord-
Whereasthe emission values of the single gaseousnozzles ing to the quickly changing load conditions of a typical
are slightly higher than those running in APU with kero- aircraft APU has been considered and shows margins for
sene,the micro-mix combustor shows quite better results. further development, especially to adapt the system to
As stated above, further NO,-level reductions are cryogenic hydrogen supply.
expected when the improved micro-mix combustion Safe ignition and engine start procedures for both
according to the star symbols in Fig. 3 is applied. engines have been developed and tested avoiding the risk
of uncontrolled combustor deflagrations and untolerable
pressure rises.
CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
Acknowledgements-The authors thank the Ministry of Science
Based on earlier results from hydrogen tests with the and Research of Northrhine-Westphalia and the manufacturers
small shaft gas turbine engine KHD T216, an A320 and DASA, BGT, ASA and Sundstrandfor their financial and/or
APU GTCP 36-300has been converted from keroseneto hardware supports. Our employees and many students have
hydrogen operation. contributed to the described developments.
704 G. DAHL and F. SUTTROP

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