By optimizing combustion stability in the gas turbine, the advanced circular solution prevents large capital expenditure and long upgrade lead times. It also improves power generation uptime and reduces operational expenses.

Reducing NOx emissions

In 2021, Jiangsu Province in China announced its “Stationary Gas Turbine Air Pollutant Emission Standard,” stipulating a NOx emission limit of 30 mg/m3, effective March 2023. To meet this requirement, the powerplant needed to replace its key combustion components or find a retrofit solution quickly. Sulzer’s solution, a combustion automatic tuning adjustment system (CATS), served to optimize combustion stability in the gas turbine by identifying and reacting to operational thresholds, while reducing NOx emissions.

Short turnaround time

Following some six months of data collection and analysis, Sulzer designed, developed, tested and implemented its modular CATS system that seamlessly integrated with the facility’s existing control system installed on the gas turbine. The CATS solution ensures NOx emissions remain under the legislative limit, with the added benefits of a short turnaround time and reduced operational expenditures of CHF 400’000 per year compared to selective catalytic reduction.

Tim Schulten, Sulzer’s Service division president, explains: “As experts in power generation applications, we appreciate the need to avoid long lead times and associated downtime as our customers strive to meet challenging emission requirements. While we focus on enabling more clean and renewable energy, our solutions are also of significant ongoing value in terms of efficiency gains, longevity and reduced emissions.”  

This document may contain forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, projections of financial developments, market activity, or future performance of products and solutions containing risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to change based on known or unknown risks and various other factors that could cause actual results or performance to differ materially from the statements made herein.