Gas Turbine Controller Optimizing Efficiency and Emissions
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial control systems for turbines and after-treatment systems often fail to consider the holistic impact of interconnected systems within an industrial plant, leading to suboptimal operational parameter setpoints that do not maximize efficiency and emissions compliance.
Innovation Solution
A model-based and data-driven control system that uses a closed-loop enhancer and a data-driven enhancer to simulate and adjust operational parameter setpoints for a gas turbine system and its after-treatment system, incorporating physics-based models and deep learning to minimize a cost function and optimize efficiency and emissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional control systems determine operational parameter setpoints for individual systems, then each system can be controlled independently, but the holistic impact of interconnected systems is not considered leading to suboptimal overall performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual system control functions into a unified control system that manages the gas turbine, after-treatment system, and bottoming cycle system as an integrated whole. The controller receives inputs from all systems and determines operational parameter setpoints that optimize overall plant performance rather than individual system performance, directly addressing the technical contradiction by combining separate controls into a holistic approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller is designed with universal functionality to manage multiple interconnected systems simultaneously. It can determine setpoints for the gas turbine, after-treatment system, and bottoming cycle system, and optimize various objectives including efficiency, emissions compliance, and fuel economy through a single multi-functional control unit, resolving the contradiction between improved overall productivity and increased device complexity.
2Use of energy by moving object
If operational parameter setpoints are optimized for maximum efficiency, then fuel economy improves, but emissions compliance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The controller dynamically adjusts operational parameters such as turbine inlet temperature, compressor outlet pressure, and after-treatment system settings to find the optimal balance between fuel economy and emissions compliance. By continuously changing these parameters based on real-time inputs and optimization algorithms, the system achieves both improved fuel efficiency and maintained emissions standards, resolving the technical contradiction between energy efficiency and harmful emissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the controller receives inputs from sensors monitoring both fuel consumption and emissions parameters. This feedback loop allows the system to adjust operational parameter setpoints in real-time, ensuring that optimizations for fuel economy do not compromise emissions compliance, and vice versa, thereby resolving the contradiction between these two objectives.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If after-treatment system parameters are adjusted to reduce emissions, then emissions compliance improves, but system complexity and operational constraints increase
Solution Approach 1:
The controller determines operational parameter setpoints for the after-treatment system in advance, optimizing parameters such as catalyst temperature and flow rates before emissions issues arise. By performing preliminary optimization actions, the system reduces NOx and ammonia slip effectively while managing system complexity through proactive rather than reactive control, resolving the technical contradiction between emissions reduction and system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a system may include a gas turbine system. the gas turbine system includes a gas turbine, an after-treatment system that may receive exhaust gases from the gas turbine system, and a controller that may receive inputs and model operational behavior of an industrial plant based on the inputs. The industrial plant may include the gas turbine and the after-treatment system. The controller may also determine one or more operational parameter setpoints for the industrial plant, select the one or more operational parameter setpoints that reduce an output of a cost function, and apply the one or more operational parameter setpoints to control the industrial plant.