GAS TURBINES

Real-Time Monitoring of Natural

Gas Fuel Cleanliness
Gas turbines require clean gas to operate efficiently. Particulate contamination
fouls fuel nozzles, causes increases in flue stack emissions, and occasion-
ally causes unplanned plant outages. Now a new real-time natural gas
cleanliness monitoring and web-based alarm system is providing valu-
able protection for natural gas–fired power plants. The adaptation of laser
light–scattering technology for the purpose of contaminant measurement
in high-pressure gaseous pipelines provides a method of monitoring liq-
uid and solid contamination levels.
By David Burns, PECOFacet/Scientific Process Solutions Inc., a Clarcor Company

I
n order to protect gas turbine (GT) power to condense out of the gas in the form of liquid ures normally occur when the filter coalescer
generation facilities against the threat of droplets. Standard fuel gas conditioning design is overwhelmed with more liquid contaminant
particulate contaminant, plant operators suggests that the gas stream be superheated to than it can handle.
install fuel gas conditioning systems. Addi- at least 50F over the hydrocarbon dew point Rotary or screw type compressors are
tionally, plant personnel at natural gas–fired and/or moisture dew point, whichever is higher. also sometimes used to give a final boost to
power plants rely heavily on gas sales con- The superheat temperature is usually set sub- fuel gas pressure. Rotary compressors utilize
tracts to ensure that purchased natural gas is stantially higher than the operating temperature lube oil to cool the compression screw and
tariff quality. to help cover the effects of atmospheric temper- to seal rotating components during the com-
Even with these safeguards in place, con- ature drops and pipeline fitting pressure losses pression process. In order to perform rotary
taminant-related performance problems can that result in temperature losses. compression, lube oil is discharged with the
take GTs off the grid. Fuel gas conditioning Atmospheric temperature drops and pipe- compressed gas. A large coalescer, which is
systems typically fail due to poor design or line fitting pressure losses can produce natural called a gas oil separator, is used to separate
equipment malfunction. And gas sales con- gas liquid condensate in the last few feet of lube oil from the gas stream.
tracts do not provide recourse because they the fuel gas piping between the fuel gas condi- In addition, rotary compressor gas oil sep-
cover gas quality but fail to quantitatively tioning skid and the combustor nozzles. Cool aration is extremely difficult, as the lube oil
cover gas cleanliness. A common gas con- morning atmospheric temperatures can reduce reaches temperatures as high as 220F, which
tract clause will state that the gas particulate the skin temperature of the fuel gas condition- greatly lowers its surface tension and viscos-
contamination must be at a level at which no ing skid equipment to the point where natural ity. The other component that makes separa-
downstream equipment or process will be gas liquids can nucleate out of solution onto tion difficult is the volume of liquid present
harmed. Once the GT is down and the damage the walls of fuel gas piping and sometimes that must be separated. Rotary compressors
has occurred, however, there is little an opera- even the walls of the gas coalescer filters that have lube oil circulation rates between 10
tor can do to prove the fuel used was off spec. are in place to remove such liquids. and 150 gallons per minute. These volumes
Fortunately, a real-time natural gas clean- Pipe fitting temperature losses are usually provide a massive opportunity for lube oil
liness monitoring and web-based alarm sys- realized via a Joule-Thomson effect caused carryover. In fact, rotary compressor gas oil
tem that offers valuable protection for natural by a pressure reduction or control valve. The separators are notorious for allowing extreme
gas–fired power plants is now available. The Joule-Thomson effect is an isoenthalpic ex- amounts of lube oil carryover.
ability to monitor pipeline cleanliness helps pansion of natural gas that results in a tem- Poorly Designed Filtration Systems.
GT operators correct contaminant issues be- perature loss. If the temperature loss drops Filter coalescers are normally designed with
fore equipment damage can occur. the gas temperature to the dew point temper- two stages. The first stage collects the liquid
ature or lower, liquids will condense out of film or free liquids that travel on the pipe
Contamination Sources the gas stream, creating a new contaminant wall, usually by gravimetric means. The sec-
Processed, clean, tariff-quality natural gas that GT operators have to deal with. ond stage utilizes a number of coalescer ele-
should be ready for the combustor nozzle. All Compressor Lube Oil Carryover. Fre- ments designed to remove solid and aerosol
too commonly, however, it is not. It is still typ- quently, fuel gas booster compressors are in- particles from the gas stream.
ical for liquid and solid contaminants to reach cluded on-site to keep fuel gas streams at the A target specification for liquid removal
and damage gas turbines. Experience suggests specified operating pressure. Compressors are for a GT fuel gas filter coalescer is 10 ppb
that pipeline contaminants invade point-of-use a consistent contributor of lube oil contamina- by weight. Well-designed coalescers can eas-
facilities for a number of reasons. tion to fuel gas pipelines. Reciprocating com- ily meet this requirement. Poorly designed
Hydrocarbon Dew Point. The hydrocarbon pressor lube oil losses have been measured up coalescers will struggle to produce an efflu-
dew point of a gas stream is the point at which to 7 gallons per day per compressor. The lube ent this clean. Filter coalescer performance
the temperature and pressure of the system are oil aerosol carryover is normally removed with issues usually originate from problems with
right for certain components of the natural gas a filtration vessel called a filter coalescer. Fail- the vessel or housing design.

52 www.powermag.com |
POWER June 2010
 2010

July 13 -15, 2010

Palmer House Hilton • Chicago
Advanced registration is now available online! www.asmeconferences.org/power2010
Pre-conference Workshops – Monday, July 12 Technical areas covered at ASME Power 2010:
Come to Chicago a day early and participate in one of the pre-conference Track 1 Fuels & Combustion, Material Handling, Emissions
workshops listed below. Please log onto the ASME Power Conference Track 2 Steam Generators
web site for more information. Track 3 Heat Exchangers & Cooling Systems
Track 4 Turbines, Generators & Auxiliaries
Electric Generators for Mechanical Engineers: Design, Operation & Track 5 Plant Operations & Maintenance
Maintenance: 8 am-5 pm Track 6 Reliability, Availability & Maintainability
Instructors: Bill Moore, P. E., Director, Product Line Development for National Track 7 Plant Systems, Structures, Components & Materials Issues
Electric Coil (NEC); and Russ Chetwynd, Turbine Generator Component Track 8 Simple & Combined Cycles
Engineer, Southern California Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
(SONGS).
Track 9 Advanced Energy Systems
Track 10 Renewables (Wind, Solar & Geothermal)
Track 11 Thermal Hydraulics & CFD
Feedwater Heater Operations & Maintenance: 8 am-5 pm
Instructors: Michael Catapano, Fellow of ASME, President, Powerfect Inc.; and Track 12 Nuclear Plant Design, Licensing & Construction
Eric Svensson, VP - Engineering, Powerfect, Inc. Track 13 Performance Testing & Performance Test Codes

NERC GADS Data Reporting: 8 am-5 pm Hotel reservations

Instructor: G. Michael Curley, Manager of GADS (Generating Availability Make your reservations by June 9 to guarantee special conference rates. Call
Data System) Services at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation
(NERC). 877.865.5321 and ask for the ASME Power Division Conference Rate.

Steam Turbine & Performance 101: 8 am-5 pm Also visit the many exhibitors representing
Instructors: Gary Golden, Senior Project Manager, EPRI Generation and
Nuclear Sectors; James Wieters, Turbine Generator Project Manager, SCANA
industry-leading companies showcasing
Nuclear Operations Divison; Simon Hogg, BSc, PhD, CEng, FIMechE, School the latest technology!
of Engineering at Durham University; and Robert Scott, Customer Service
Manager, Alstom Power.

Biomass & Coal Fuel Quality: 1 pm-5 pm

Instructors: Christopher Blazek, Vice President, Enviro-Burn Inc. and
Chair, ASME Power Division; and Dr. Ashwani Gupta, Univ. of Maryland,
Bring the whole family
Distinguished University Professor and Worcester Reed Award Recipient. and enjoy all that
Nuclear Conformity Assessment: How to get an N-Stamp: 1 pm-5 pm Chicago has to offer!
Instructor: Kevin Ennis, Director, Nuclear Codes & Standards, ASME. Photos courtesy of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau

Full Registration Advance On-Site

(Before 6/15/10)

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circle 23 on reader service card

 Gas turbines
Common filter coalescer vessel design Go with the flow. This table shows natural gas flow data for two gas turbine power plants.
mistakes include the following: The calculated Reynolds number is well within the turbulent flow regime. Source: PECOFacet/
Scientific Process Solutions Inc.
■ Skimping on the first-stage free liquid
knockout area. Flow condition Plant 1 Plant 2
■ Placing the coalescer elements too close to Flow rate (MMSCFD) 36.5 36
one another.
Operating pressure (psig) 494 435
■ Locating the outlet nozzle in an area that
causes the gas to channel and not fully and Operating temperature (F) 358 119
equally utilize all of the available coalesc- Specific gravity 0.6 0.6
ing media. Piping diameter (inches) 8 10
Volumetric flow (ACFH) 68,820 52,064
The coalescer elements also play an im-
portant role in removal performance. GT op- Gas density (lb/ft3) 1.01 1.32
erators need to heed the following warning: Pipeline velocity (ft/sec) 55 27
Not all coalescer elements are the same. Most Mass flow rate (lb/min) 1,163 1,146
elements can meet the target removal require-
Reynolds number ~3x106 ~3x106
ment. Elements differ, however, in their liquid
handling capacity. Some coalescer elements
are available that will handle 5,000 ppm by 2 in the table are both around 3 x 106—well
1. A pipeline profile. This compu-
weight inlet liquid contaminant, while others within the turbulent flow regime. A Reynolds tational fluid dynamics model illustrates a
will handle as low as 5 ppm. Fuel gas condi- number above 2,000 is considered to represent natural gas pipeline gas velocity profile based
tioning filter failures are a common source of turbulent flow. The frictional effect of the pipe- on Plant 1 data. The profile shows a velocity
combustor nozzle contamination. line wall on gas velocity must be taken into cross section of an 8-inch pipe with methane
All of these issues routinely result in new account when studying pipeline flow. The gas at 55 ft/s and 494 psig. Source: PECOFacet/
contaminant challenges for point-of-use fuel flow rate at the pipeline wall will be almost zero Scientific Process Solutions Inc.
gas conditioning systems. If the contaminant in the laminar flow region. Gas velocity will in-
59.88
loading is more than the system can handle, crease as you move away from the pipe wall 56.88
or if the dew point requires more heat duty toward the center of the pipe, where the highest 53.89
than the heater can deliver, contaminants will gas velocity is found and the gas is in the turbu- 50.90
47.90
make it to the combustor nozzles. lent flow regime. Figure 1 provides a computa- 44.91
tional fluid dynamics illustration of a pipeline 41.91
Pipeline Contaminant Behavior gas flow profile based on the Plant 1 data. 38.92
35.93
Problematic fuel gas contaminants normally The forces or Reynolds stresses found in 32.93
break down into the following categories: a turbulent fluid can shear liquid particles 29.94
present in the fluid stream. Droplet shear 26.95
23.95
■ Pipeline corrosion-produced solid particles will occur if the Reynolds stresses exceed the 20.96
■ Hydrocarbon condensate droplet’s internal surface forces or surface 17.96
■ Lube oil tension. Droplet surface tension is defined as 14.97
11.98
■ Pipeline injection chemicals cohesive intermolecular forces located at or 8.98
■ Water droplets near a liquid droplet’s surface. These forces 5.99
work to hold the droplet together in a spheri- 2.99
0.00
Solid particles are typically easy to remove cal shape. The surface tension of water is 73
Contours of velocity April 03, 2009
with quality filter elements that are properly dynes/centimeter (cm), whereas hydrocarbon magnitude (ft/s) FLUENT 6.3 (3d, pbns, rke)
designed to handle the solid’s physical charac- liquids are in the 20 dynes/cm range. Under
teristics and content. In contrast, the presence turbulent flow, a hydrocarbon droplet will smallest stable droplet size of 181 microns.
of liquid droplets or mist contamination is nor- shear much easier than a water droplet. This In order to obtain a visual indication of these
mally more troublesome, as liquids can con- phenomenon causes hydrocarbon droplets, particle sizes, the largest water droplet that can
dense out of the gas and are subject to shear. and other liquids with relatively low surface fall through the air is 8,000 microns, or about
Fluid streams under turbulent flow produce tension, to be more difficult to remove. 0.32 inch. The maximum size of hydrocarbon
a mass of flow eddies of various sizes. Each A simple way to predict when shearing droplets in the fuel gas systems of Plant 1 and
flow eddy will contain a definite amount of me- will occur is to look at a droplet’s Weber Plant 2 is in the range of dust particles.
chanical energy. Turbulent flow also produces number, the ratio of a fluid’s inertial force to Large droplets cannot exist in a turbulent
deviating velocities in a pipeline. The com- a droplet’s surface tension. A Weber number flow pipeline except in the laminar region next
bined effect of flow eddies and turbulent flow of 13 for a gas system is considered the critical to the pipe wall. If a pipeline’s aerosol content
deviating velocities greatly enhances the shear number at which shear will start to occur. is large enough, aerosols will coalesce due to
forces in a turbulent environment. Turbulent re- The smallest stable droplet sizes for Plant 1 droplet collisions and pipeline wall interac-
gime shear forces are commonly referred to as and Plant 2, as shown in the table, were calcu- tion. Once these particles are in the laminar
Reynolds stresses. The table contains measured lated based on using the Weber equation with flow layer, they can build up and form a trav-
natural gas flow data for two GT power plants. a Weber number of 13 at the average pipeline eling film of liquid. Unfortunately, a traveling
The calculated Reynolds numbers (inter- velocities. A smallest stable droplet size of 55 film of liquid actually provides the highest po-
preted physically as the ratio of a fluid’s inertial microns was calculated for Plant 1’s fuel gas tential for causing GT performance issues. It
forces to its viscous force) for Plant 1 and Plant process conditions. Plant 2’s data produced a is generally accepted that GT fuel gas should

54 www.powermag.com |
POWER June 2010
 GAS TURBINES
have no more than 10 ppb liquid contaminant. 2. Tracking down contaminants. The 3. On the alert. The PlantGard web dash-
Experience suggests that liquid films do not PlantGard high-pressure gas pipeline contami- board is shown recording changes in the
develop in a system where the liquid content nant monitor can detect and measure aerosols natural gas’s cleanliness. Source: PECOFacet/
is kept at or below this level. and solid particles. Data from the monitoring sys- Scientific Process Solutions Inc.
tem are normally communicated by serial or ana-
Method for Gas Pipeline log cable to plant digital control systems. Source:
Contaminant Monitoring PECOFacet/Scientific Process Solutions Inc.
Natural gas–fired power plants utilize gas
chromatographs to monitor gas quality and
the energy level of fuel gas. A gas chromato-
graph will monitor the percentage of each
of the gaseous components and can even
be set up to check for the presence of gas-
eous contaminants like H2S, CO2, and nitro-
gen. However, a chromatograph can not be
used to accurately monitor the presence of
pipeline liquid and solid contaminants. Gas ■ Contaminants coat sensor surfaces over
chromatographs utilize filtration systems to time, resulting in output signal changes.
protect their gas separation columns by re-
moving such contaminants prior to analysis. When selecting a technology to perform
A technology has been developed to moni- contaminant measurement, the fluid mechan-
tor solid and liquid contaminant levels in ics of how contaminants behave in a pipe-
high-pressure gas pipelines. Contaminant line must be considered. Understanding the
monitoring in high-pressure volatile gas pipe- ■ The gas must be sampled and analyzed combined effects of turbulent and laminar
lines produces a special set of design chal- at pipeline pressure and temperature. barrier flow on typical pipeline contaminants
lenges. These two design challenges have Changes in pipeline pressure and tempera- is key. For example, the data in the table for
eliminated many promising technologies from ture will condense or vaporize some gas Plants 1 and 2 are very typical for gas tur-
the application of particle contaminant moni- components and may change the size and bine fuel. The data from these plants tell us
toring and measurement in gas systems: number of other contaminants. that most fuel gas lines are fully turbulent.

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CIRCLE 24 ON READER SERVICE CARD

|
June 2010 POWER www.powermag.com 55
 Gas turbines
room dust and aerosol monitors (Figure 2).
4. Clean bill of health. The clean gas 5. Caught in the act. The wet gas flow The system developed includes a sam-
flow in the pipeline illustrates normal clean in the pipeline illustrates a liquid contaminant
pling probe that is inserted about one-third
gas fuel conditions. Source: PECOFacet/Sci- upset. Source: PECOFacet/Scientific Process
entific Process Solutions Inc. Solutions Inc.
of the way past the pipeline wall. The sam-
pling probe will flow a continuous sample of
gas up through a sampling line that feeds the
laser particle-counting flow cell. After pass-
ing through the flow cell, the discharge gas is
pumped back into the pipeline with a pneu-
matic-driven compressor that is an integrated
part of the monitoring system.
Data from the monitoring system are nor-
mally communicated to the plant digital con-
trol system (Figure 3). A real-time data stream
is also web-based for secure viewing from any
Internet connection. Particle count trend lines
are monitored for each particle size channel or
We also have calculated that droplets larger and film flow at higher liquid concentrations. registry. Alarm level thresholds are set for criti-
than typical household dust are going to be In either case, aerosols will be present. cal registries. Increasing levels of contaminant
sheared and atomized into smaller aerosol A contaminant measurement and monitor- will always increase the particle count. Experi-
droplets. If the liquid contaminant content is ing technology must be used that can detect ence has proven that film flow will produce a
high enough, a liquid film will build up in and measure aerosols as well as solid particles, proportionally increasing aerosol content as the
the laminar flow boundary layer. The laminar if they are present. The technology must also film content increases. The particle count data
to turbulent transition layer is going to place handle contaminant coating and perform its are used to measure the relative amount of con-
the gas liquid interface under constant shear analysis at pipeline pressure and temperature. taminant flowing in the line (Figures 4 and 5).
conditions. Gas liquid interface sinusoidual As particle size measurement was determined Particle size distribution data help indicate
wave fragmentation will occur. to be the most important parameter to moni- what’s happening in a pipeline. For example,
Therefore, we concluded that if liquid is tor, laser-produced light-scattering technology a coalescer element seal failure will continu-
present, it will be in aerosol form at low liquid was selected for the application. Laser particle ously produce particles in the 1- through 8-mi-
concentrations and a combination of aerosol counters have gained wide acceptance as clean cron range, whereas a properly working filter
coalescer will have an effluent stream contain-
ing only low levels of particles less than 1 mi-
cron. A coalescer element starting to lose its
removal efficiency due to solids loading will
produce a gradual increase over time of all
particle sizes. Liquid slugs from the upstream
pipeline result in an immediate jump in par-
ticle counts. Cataloging contaminant events
to their resulting particle size distributions has
proven to be a powerful diagnostic tool.

New Technology Improves Plant

Performance
The innovative use of laser light–scattering
technology is an effective method of monitor-
ing liquid and solid contamination levels in
high-pressure gaseous pipelines. Turbulent gas-
eous pipeline aerosol behavior produces a con-
taminant particle size distribution that can be
used to diagnose process problems and filtra-
tion equipment performance. The technology’s
ability to monitor fuel gas cleanliness levels is
providing data that are now being used to suc-
cessfully confirm the quality of gas supplies
and troubleshoot plant performance issues. ■
—David Burns ([email protected])
is vice president of research and develop-
ment at PECOFacet/Scientific Process So-
lutions Inc., a Clarcor Company. Scientific
Process Solutions Inc. provides natural
gas pipeline contaminant measurement,
monitoring, and filtration analysis services
for natural gas–fired power plants.

56 www.powermag.com |
POWER June 2010