Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Durability (RAMD) testing and control system development. Final report for period July 1, 1998 - December 31, 1999

Catalytica Energy Systems Inc. (CESI) is developing a novel catalytic combustion system (called Xonon{reg_sign}) that produces ultra-low emissions for natural gas fired turbine engines. In this project, the Xonon{reg_sign} system was installed on a Kawasaki M1A-13A 1.4 kW engine connected to the Silicon Valley Power electrical grid. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate the ultra-low emission levels of the Xonon{reg_sign} system and to determine the system Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Durability (RAMD). The engine accumulated 8,128 hours of on-grid operation while exhibiting average NOx levels of 1.3 ppm, CO of 0.9 ppm and unburned hydrocarbons of 1.3 ppm (all values corrected to 15% O{sub 2}). The Xonon{reg_sign} system reliability and availability were 99.2% and 91.2% respectively. Maintainability and durability values were not quantified due to the redesign of some key system components over the course of the program. The RAMD program also included control system development activities to improve the stability of the fuel control system to various levels of load application and shedding. Other control system modifications improved the ability of the system to re-synchronize with the grid after full load rejection