Technologies for the Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides Emissions

When it comes to gas turbines, their main problem concerning pollutant emissions is represented by nitric oxides. Among other emissions, sulphur oxides being much reduced due to the use of liquid distilled and gas fuels with a low content of sulphur. Using water or steam injection became the favourite method during the '80s and especially the '90s since "dry" methods and catalytic reduction were both at the beginning of the development phase. Catalytic convertors have been used since the '80s and they are still used although the costs of renewing the catalyst are very high. In the last twenty years a gradual decrease has been registered on the limits of nitric oxides from 75 ppm to 25 ppm, and now the target is oriented towards the 9 ppm level. The evolution of burning technologies of combustion makes it possible to control the level of production of nitric oxides even from the source without being necessary to use "humid" methods. This, of course, opened the market for gas turbines because they can function even in areas with limited quality water reserves, such as maritime platforms and in the desert. In this paper, we are going to show that, although water injection is still used, "dry" control technologies of burning became favourite methods for the majority of users on the industrial power generators market. The great dependency between the creation of nitric oxides and the temperature reveals the effect of direct water or steam injection on reducing nitric oxides. Recent research showed that a reduction up to 85% of nitric oxides may be obtained by using the water or steam injection all together with the improvement of aerodynamic character of the burning room.