Patent ID: 7784261

Claim:
In a combined cycle power plant comprising a gas topping cycle for combusting a fuel to produce shaft power and an exhaust gas and a steam bottoming cycle receiving the exhaust gas to produce additional shaft power, the gas topping cycle comprising: an aspirated compressor for providing a flow of compressed air; an integrated torus-configured combustion chamber and turbine first stage vane for combusting fuel in the compressed air to produce combustion gas; a plurality of turbine stages downstream of the first stage vane for expanding the combustion gas to extract shaft power and to produce the exhaust gas; and a means for reheating of the combustion gas associated with at least one of the plurality of turbine stages downstream of the first stage vane; wherein said means is configured to limit a peak combustion temperature of the combustion gas to no more than a threshold temperature of about 1,400° C., said threshold temperature based on a maximum desired level of nitrogen oxide in the exhaust gas.