A method of controlling an RPM of a blower for a gas furnace that passes air to be supplied to a room around a heat exchanger of a gas furnace, the method including starting operation of the gas furnace; measuring an air temperature in an outlet side of the gas furnace; measuring the RPM of the blower; determining whether the air temperature falls within a reference temperature range; and adjusting the RPM of the blower such that the air temperature falls within the reference temperature range.

A method of determining at least one fuel characteristic of a fuel provided to a gas turbine engine of an aircraft includes making an operational change, the operational change being effected by a controllable component of a propulsion system of which the gas turbine engine forms a part, and being arranged to affect operation of the gas turbine engine, sensing a response to the operational change; and determining the at least one fuel characteristic based on the response to the operational change.

A system and method of monitoring for sand plugging in a gas turbine engine includes sensing differential pressure across a combustor during engine operation. The sensed differential pressure is processed to determine an amount of sand plugging of combustor cooling holes, and an alert is generated when the amount of sand plugging exceeds a predetermined threshold.

A pressure and temperature probe includes a probe head, a probe tip extending from the probe head and ending with a sensor face, a pressure channel extending into the probe tip through the sensor face, and a temperature channel extending into the probe tip through the sensor face. A pressure sensor is in fluid communication with a pressure channel and a temperature sensor in fluid communication with the temperature channel. The temperature channel extends parallel to the pressure channel, and the temperature channel is fluidly separate from the pressure channel. The sensor face can be configured to minimally intrude the flowpath of a working fluid, thereby minimizing disruption of the flowpath. The probe can be configured on a gas turbine engine.

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are described herein. One method embodiment includes determining an unscaled efficiency signal of combustion equipment using data measured from the combustion equipment, determining a theoretical efficiency signal of the combustion equipment using a theoretical efficiency surface of the combustion equipment and a subset of the measured data, and normalizing the unscaled efficiency signal using values from a correlated portion of the theoretical efficiency signal to monitor efficiency of the combustion equipment. Other embodiments can include providing a performance indicator of the combustion equipment in response to an operational mode change.

A heater device including at least one control and/or regulating unit, which is provided to set an air ratio of a combustion process to a setpoint air ratio. It is provided that the control and/or regulating unit is provided to ascertain a power correction factor in at least one operating state and take it into consideration in the setting of the air ratio.

A method of operating a heat releasing reactor producing product gas. The method includes steps of (a) monitoring a current load of the reactor, (b) finding such a numerical value for a current computational maximum momentary load for which at least one product gas factor computed using currently monitored process data with a numerical model of the reactor fulfills an acceptance condition, and selecting the numerical value as the current computational maximum momentary load, (c) indicating the current computational maximum momentary load to the operator and/or, if the current load is (c1) less than the current computational maximum momentary load, (c1i) indicating the operator that the load may be increased, and/or (c1ii) automatically increasing the load, and/or (c2) greater than the current computational maximum momentary load, (c2i) indicating the operator that the load exceeds the current computational maximum boiler momentary load, and/or (c2ii) automatically reducing the boiler load.

A power generation system includes a gas turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. The power generation system includes a diluent supply system for supplying a diluent to the compressor section. The supplied diluent and ambient air are compressed together by the compressor section before being transferred to the combustor section. A method for facilitating improved emissions performance of the gas turbine engine using such a system is also provided.

Provided is a correlation deriving method including the steps of: generating coal ash by incinerating coal; generating sintered ash by heating the coal ash at a predetermined heating temperature within a range of a combustion temperature of a coal burning boiler; measuring hardness of the sintered ash; measuring an exhaust gas temperature exhibited when coal which is to have the hardness is burnt in the coal burning boiler; and deriving a correlation between the hardness and the exhaust gas temperature.

Described herein are two-stage catalytic heating systems and methods of operating thereof. A system comprises a first-stage catalytic reactor and a second-stage catalytic reactor, configured to operate in sequence and at different operating conditions, For example, the first-stage catalytic reactor is supplied with fuel and oxidant at fuel-rich conditions. The first-stage catalytic reactor generates syngas. The syngas is flown into the second-stage catalytic reactor together with some additional oxidant. The second-stage catalytic reactor operates at fuel-lean conditions and generates exhaust. Splitting the overall fuel oxidation process between the two catalytic reactors allows operating these reactors away from the stoichiometric fuel-oxidant ratio and avoiding excessive temperatures in these reactors. As a result, fewer pollutants are generated during the operation of two-stage catalytic heating systems. For example, the temperatures are maintained below 1.000 C. at all oxidation stages.