A review of the effect of biodiesel on gas turbine emissions and performance

A continually growing awareness of the finiteness of fossil fuel availability coupled with an ever better understanding of the negative effects of fossil fuel consumption has motivated a search for fuels that can be used in place of fossil fuels, but which can be derived from sustainable sources such as growable organic matter. The effects of using biodiesel in existing gas turbines has received less attention than the effects of its use in more traditional internal combustion engines, due to the challenges of using this fuel in the typical aviation environment. This paper will provide a basic knowledge of biodiesel production and qualities, some of the limitations of its use, and modeling techniques for determining its performance within certain applications. A significant part of this paper is focused on reviewing the current state of experimental validation of our understanding of biodiesel performance in gas turbines. Particularly the experiments conducted to date that have measured the gaseous emissions of gas turbines operated with biodiesel as a fuel are reviewed and discussed. The outcome of this study is that turbines are shown to operate quite similarly when operated with biodiesel as they do with jet fuel, but there are significant challenges concerning material compatibility, energetic content, and low temperature characteristics that must be overcome when using biodiesel for aviation purposes. These challenges are less substantial when turbines are operated at ground level, since ground level operations are not generally hindered by extremely low temperatures and limited volume and weight requirements. Unfortunately, very few experiments have been conducted and published concerning this subject. The paper also proposes further research to better understand and optimize the application of biodiesel to gas turbines.