A Low Emission Combustor for an Automotive Gas Turbine

A low emission, variable-geometry, lean, prevaporizing-premixing combustor is described that was developed at the General Motors Research Laboratories for automotive gas turbine application. The basic design that was conceived especially to minimize the emissions of oxides of nitrogen and the designs and operations of the major combustor components are discussed. Also, an automatic engine control system which was adapted to optimize the low emission performance of the combustor as installed in a regenerative gas turbine is described. Test results of a vehicular installation of this system show that, at low mileage it met all current Federal Emission Standards including the Research Goal of 0.41 g/mi for emissions of oxides of nitrogen. Engine durability remains to be proven.