One of the possible ways to reduce the CO2 emissions from coal fired power plants is to use a
H2-rich syngas in the gas turbine as a fuel which is realized in the Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC). However, burning syngas results in higher amount of water vapour
in the turbine environment compared to the turbines operating on e.g. natural gas.
In the present studies the effect of water vapour on the oxidation behaviour of three material
groups used in stationary gas turbines was investigated, including:
1. A polycrystalline Ni-base superalloy Rene 80, which is representative of a chromia
forming alloys;
2. An alumina forming, Re-containing MCrAlY coating, and
3. APS-TBC systems based on Rene 80 and having the same MCrAlY as the bondcoat.
The three materials types were tested mainly at 1050°C, however, some experiments were
also performed at higher temperatures: 1080°C and 1120°C in various atmospheres including
those based on Ar-O2 and synthetic air with various water vapour contents.
The results obtained for Rene 80 in Ar-O2 based atmospheres showed that water vapour
addition had only a minor effect on the scale composition and growth rate. However, in the
synthetic air based atmospheres water vapour addition suppressed internal Ti nitridation.
After longer exposure times (over 1000 h at 1050°C) higher material loss was observed in the
H2O-containing synthetic air, which might be related to evaporation of Cr, Mo, W
oxyhydroxide species
Wojciech Nowak