L51655 Improved Intake Air Filtration Systems

The quality of inlet air consumed by pipeline gas turbines plays a significant role in the performance, maintenance, and economy of turbine operations. The airborne contaminants may cause degradation of compressor blades and hot gas path components, primarily by erosion, corrosion, and fouling. For gas turbine service, air contamination is characterized by dust loading of the air (mass of dust per unit volume), chemical composition of the particulate matter, and particle size distribution. To ensure properly conditioned clean air for reliable performance under difficult conditions, the particulate contaminants must be removed by inlet air filters. The purpose of this program was to validate the use of new technology for self-cleaning are inlet filtration on gas turbine pumping applications. An approach utilizing triboelectrification of fabric filters was examined by testing to determine the efficiency, cleanability, pressure drop versus flow, and dust-holding capacity of seven pairs of filter cartridges: six fabric and one paper. While triboelectric (TE) properties of the fabric filter media yield no apparent improvement in filter properties relative to non-TE designs, electrically neutral fabric filters represent a major advance over conventional filters and the paper-media self-cleaning filter which were tested.