BACKUP SYSTEM FOR SUPPLYING COMPRESSED AIR TO A GAS TURBINE COMPONENT

Abstract

The invention relates generally to gas turbine engines used for electrical power generation. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide systems and ways for improving gas turbine engine reliability through an electric motor backup system for cooling features of the turbine section.

Claims

1. A system for providing compressed air to cool gas turbine engine components comprising: a compressor, a combustion system, and a turbine fluidly connected, wherein a portion of air from the compressor is used to cool components in the turbine; an auxiliary air compression system comprising a fueled engine, an intercooled compressor, and a recuperator; and, an electric backup compression system in fluid communication with the compressor and the turbine and comprising an electrically-powered motor coupled to a backup compressor; wherein compressed air from at least one of the auxiliary compression system and the electric backup compression system is directed into the turbine for cooling components of the turbine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electric backup compression system further increases pressure of the air from the compressor.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising a cooler for cooling air from the backup compressor.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the air from the backup compressor passes through the cooler prior to entering the turbine.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a valve for regulating a flow of compressed air from at least one of the auxiliary air compression system and the electric backup compression system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the compressed air directed to the gas turbine engine from at least one of the auxiliary compression system and the electric backup compression system is provided at a higher pressure than compressed air in a compressor discharge plenum of the gas turbine engine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary air compression system provides a primary source of cooling air to the gas turbine engine components and the electric backup compression system provides a secondary source of cooling air in the event the auxiliary compression system is not available.

8. A method of providing cooling air to a turbine section of a gas turbine engine comprising: operating the gas turbine engine to produce a supply of compressed air from a compressor of the gas turbine engine; operating an auxiliary compression system comprising a fueled engine, an intercooled compressor, and a recuperator to produce a first supply of pressurized air; and, operating an electric backup compression system comprising an electrically-powered motor coupled to a backup compressor to produce a second supply of pressurized air, the second supply of pressurized air formed from a portion of the supply of compressed air from the compressor of the gas turbine engine; and, directing at least one of the first supply of pressurized air and the second supply of pressurized air into the turbine section for cooling one or more components of the turbine.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising directing the second supply of pressurized air through a cooler.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the intercooled compressor and the fueled engine each draw in ambient air.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising regulating a flow of the at least one of the first supply of pressurized air and the second supply of pressurized air through a valve.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the valve is positioned to permit flow from only the first supply of pressurized air.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the valve is positioned to permit flow from only the second supply of pressurized air.

14. A method of providing cooling air to a turbine section of a gas turbine engine comprising: operating the gas turbine engine compressor, combustor and turbine to produce a supply of compressed air from the engine compressor; directing a portion of the compressed air to an electric backup compression system; operating the electric backup compression system comprising an electrically-powered motor coupled to a backup compressor to produce a second supply of pressurized air; and, directing the second supply of pressurized air into the turbine for cooling one or more components of the turbine.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising directing the second supply of pressurized air to a cooler prior to being directed to the turbine.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the backup compressor is an intercooled compressor.

17. The method of claim of claim 14 further comprising operating an auxiliary compression system comprising a fueled engine, an intercooled compressor, and a recuperator to produce a first supply of pressurized air.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising regulating a mixing the second supply of pressurized air with the first supply of pressurized air.

19. A system for providing compressed air to cool gas turbine engine components comprising: a compressor, a combustion system, and a turbine fluidly connected, wherein a portion of air from the compressor is used to cool components in the turbine; and, a plurality of auxiliary compression systems in selective fluid communication with the components in the turbine, at least one of the auxiliary compression systems comprising a fueled engine, an intercooled compressor, and a recuperator; wherein compressed air produced by the plurality of auxiliary compression systems provides a backup supply of cooling air to the components in the turbine.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a valve for regulating a flow of compressed air from the plurality of auxiliary compression systems to the gas turbine engine.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The present invention is described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

[0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a gas turbine engine in accordance with the prior art.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of an auxiliary compression system and an electric backup compression system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0020] FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing of a gas turbine engine having an electric backup compression system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of a series of auxiliary compression systems in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] Embodiments of the present invention are described below with respect to FIGS. 2-4. Referring initially to FIG. 2, a gas turbine engine 200 is provided comprising a compressor 201, a combustion system 202, and a turbine 203 in fluid communication. The compressor 201 takes in ambient air and compresses it, through a multi-stage compression process, to a higher temperature and pressure and passes the compressed air to the combustion system 202. A portion of the compressed air 210 is directed from the compressor discharge for purposes of cooling components in the turbine 203.

[0023] The compressed air 210 is passed to an electric backup compression system 220 that is also in fluid communication with the turbine 203. The electric backup compression system 220 comprises a motor 222 powered by an electrical supply 224. The motor 222 provides shaft power to turn the backup compressor 226. This electric backup compression system 220 takes compressed air 210 from the engine compressor 201, or an engine compressor discharge at the exit of compressor 201, and further compresses the air to a higher operating pressure. Depending on the temperature and pressure requirements for the cooling air 231 being supplied to the turbine 203, the compressed air may pass through a cooler 228, to cool the air to a lower temperature. However, care must be used when cooling the air temperature of air from the backup compressor in order to ensure the temperature is not lowered to the point of causing cracking in turbine parts due to thermal shock. Compressed air 230, also referred to as a second supply of pressurized air, then passes through a valve 232, which controls flow to the turbine 203.

[0024] The electric backup compression system 220 can be used alone as a way to further compress cooling air, as shown in FIG. 3, or can be used in the event of trouble or availability issues with an auxiliary air compression system 250, as shown in FIG. 2. Referring back to FIG. 2, the electric backup compression system 220 operates in conjunction with or as a separate unit to the auxiliary air compression system 250. The auxiliary air compression system 250 comprises a reciprocating engine 252, which takes in fuel 254 and ambient air 256 and generates power in the form of torque on a shaft, and provides shaft power to turn a multistage intercooled compressor 258. The compressor 258 draws in ambient air 260 and compresses the air to form warm compressed air 262.

[0025] The auxiliary air compression system 250 also comprises a recuperator 264, which receives exhaust 266 from the reciprocating engine 252 and the warm compressed air 262 from the compressor 258. As the compressed air 262 passes through the recuperator 264, the compressed air 262 is heated by the exhaust 266 from the reciprocating engine 252. As a result, a supply of hot compressed air 268, also referred herein as a first supply of pressurized air, exits from the recuperator 264. The remaining exhaust 270, which is now cooler due to it being used as a heating source, is routed to the atmosphere or to the gas turbine exhaust.

[0026] The electric backup compression system 220 can be sized to continuously supply a portion of the cooling air where the portion of the cooling air represents a fraction of the capacity of the electric driven system. By doing this, the electric backup compression system 220 can operate continuously to minimize any lag time in the event all of, or a portion of, the auxiliary compression system 250 goes offline.

[0027] Referring back to FIG. 3, the electric backup compression system 220 is capable of supplying all of the cooling requirements to the turbine 203. Although only a single electric backup compression system 220 is depicted, it may be advantageous to utilize multiple electric backup compression systems in order to provide redundancy to the cooling system.

[0028] Referring back to FIG. 2, the valve 232 regulates the flow of compressed air for cooling in the turbine 203. That is, the valve 232 is adjustable and can restrict the compressed air to that of the first supply of pressurized air 268 from the auxiliary air compression system 250 or a second supply of pressurized air 230 from the electric backup compression system 220, or a combination of the first supply of pressurized air 268 and the second supply of pressurized air 230 to form the cooling air 231 for cooling components in the turbine 203, such as turbine vanes or turbine blades.

[0029] As one skilled in the art can appreciate, it is beneficial to be able to control the temperature of the hot compressed air 268. This control is accomplished by a compressed air bypass or an exhaust bypass around the recuperator 264, both of which are not depicted for clarity purposes.

[0030] Depending on the pressure ratio of the backup compressor 226, it may be advantageous to pull the compressed air for the electric backup compression system 220 from a location other than a compressor discharge plenum, such as an upstream stage in the compressor 201. If air is withdrawn from an earlier stage of the compressor 201, then the cooler 228 may be eliminated from the electric backup compression system 220 because the air entering the system will be cooler than air taken from the compressor discharge plenum. Furthermore, utilizing a backup compressor 226 having more than one stage of compression, such as an intercooled compressor, is another way of reducing the compressor exit temperature by intercooling one or more stages.

[0031] One of the main aspects of cooling turbine components through an auxiliary supply system, as disclosed herein, is that the present invention provides cooling air at a pressure higher than the compressor discharge pressure of the engine 200, allowing for more efficient cooling and advanced cooling schemes to be used, resulting in a reduced amount of cooling air required. Using less air for cooling increases the amount of air going through the combustion process, which translates into improved engine efficiency. Furthermore, by lowering the operating temperatures of hot gas path turbine parts, operating life of the turbine parts can be extended.

[0032] Referring now to FIG. 4, a system 400 for providing compressed air to cool gas turbine engine components is depicted. The system 400 comprises a gas turbine engine having a compressor 401, a combustor 402, and turbine 403 fluidly connected where a portion of the air 405 from the compressor 401 is used to cool components in the turbine 403. Shaft power from the gas turbine engine drives a generator 404. A plurality of auxiliary compression systems 420 are in selective fluid communication with the gas turbine engine at least one of the auxiliary compression system 420 comprises a fueled engine 422, an intercooled compressor 424, and a recuperator 426. The auxiliary compression systems 420 depicted in FIG. 4 are in accordance with the auxiliary air compression system discussed above, and as shown in FIG. 2. While the cooling air 405 for the components of turbine 403 is taken from the compressor 401, the compressed air 430 produced by auxiliary compression systems 420 provides a backup supply of cooling air to the components in turbine 403. The flow of compressed air 430 from the auxiliary compression systems 420 to turbine 403 is regulated by a valve 440.

[0033] As used herein, the term “fueled engine” means a heat engine, such as a piston driven or rotary (e.g. Wankel) internal combustion engine (e.g. gasoline engine, diesel engine, natural gas fired engine, or similar fuels, or a combination of such fuels) or a gas turbine, that produces work by combusting a fuel with air to heat a working fluid which then drives blades or the like. The shaft of the engine turns a multi-stage auxiliary compressor which compresses the air, thereby heating the air. Depending on the configuration of the separate compressed air source, the compressor of the backup compression system may be an intercooled compressor, where the air is cooled between each stage of the compressor, thereby allowing for further compression of the air over more typical compression systems. According to one embodiment, the auxiliary compressor is a multistage compressor having at least one upstream compression stage and at least one downstream compression stage fluidly downstream of the upstream compression stage, and the step of operating the fueled engine to drive the auxiliary compressor to produce compressed air from the auxiliary compressor includes the step of cooling the compressed air exiting the upstream compression stage before delivering it to the downstream compression stage. Preferably, the apparatus further comprises an intercooler heat exchanger fluidly connected to at least one of the stage inlets and at least one of the stage outlets to cool the compressed air exiting the at least one of the stage outlets prior to delivering the compressed air to the at least one of the stage inlets downstream thereof.

[0034] As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, each of the embodiments of the present invention may also include flow control valves, backflow prevention valves, and shut-off valves as required to insure that the flow of air, auxiliary compressed air, and compressor discharge air flow only in the directions described herein. While the particular systems, components, methods, and devices described herein and described in detail are fully capable of attaining the above-described objects and advantages of the invention, it is to be understood that these are but embodiments of the invention and are thus representative of the subject matter which is broadly contemplated by the present invention. The scope of the present invention fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of the present invention is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims. It will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the invention are covered by the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.