Experimental and theoretical investigation of an evaporative fuel system for heat engines

The evaporative gas turbine (EvGT) pilot plant has been in operation at Lund University in Sweden since 1997. This project has led to improved knowledge of evaporative techniques and the concept of introducing fuel into gas turbines by evaporation. This results in, amongst others, power augmentation, efficiency increase and lower emissions. This article presents the experimental and theoretical results of the evaporation of a mixture of ethanol and water into an air stream at elevated pressures and temperatures. A theoretical model has been established for the simultaneous heat and mass transfer occurring in the ethanol humidification tower. The theoretical model has been validated through experiments at several operating conditions. It has been shown that the air, water and ethanol can be calculated throughout the column in a satisfactory way. The height of the column can be estimated within an error of 15% compared with measurements. The results from the model are most sensitive to the properties of diffusion coefficient, viscosity, thermal conductivity and activity coefficient due to the complexity of the polar gas mixture of water and air.