Wild Blue Yonder

2006 ◽  
Vol 128 (05) ◽  
pp. 36-39
Author(s):  
Lee S. Langston

This paper focuses on research and innovation in the gas turbine industry. The production of nonaviation gas turbines was $3.6 billion in 1990, only 15% of total production. With improvement in thermal efficiency, increases in unit size, and the building of record breaking combined-cycle electric power plants fueled by cheap natural gas, nonaviation production zoomed to a euphoric high of $25.8 billion in 2001. The US Department of Energy announced last year the award of $130 million for 10 new projects to integrate hydrogen-burning gas turbines and turbine subsystems into integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) central power stations. Nuclear generation is also a zero-emissions technology, and Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Ltd, a South African company, is developing a gas turbine-nuclear reactor electric power plant, with participating companies that include Westinghouse, MHI of Japan, Nukem of Germany, and South Africa's Eskom.

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (06) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Lee Longston

This article focuses on gas turbines that were produced in 2001 spanning a wide range of capacities. As the engineer's most versatile energy converters, gas turbines producing thrust power continued in 2001 to propel most of the world's aircraft, both military and commercial. The largest commercial jet engines today can produce as much as 120,000 pounds thrust, or some 534,000 Newton. More natural gas pipeline capacity will be added to feed the surge in gas-driven electric power plants that have been corning online in the United States and other parts of the world. The gas turbine may come to be used in a new, commercially promising closed-cycle configuration. A South African company has been working on plans to build and test a prototype of a closed-cycle electric power gas turbine, which uses helium gas as the working fluid and a helium-cooled nuclear reactor to provide heat to power the cycle. If the gas turbine-nuclear reactor power plant is successful, the gas turbine may be the key to yet another energy conversion device, as it has been with record-setting numbers of combined-cycle plants installed worldwide.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (02) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Lee S. Langston

This article presents a study on new electric power gas turbines and the advent of shale natural gas, which now are upending electrical energy markets. Energy Information Administration (EIA) results show that total electrical production cost for a conventional coal plant would be 9.8 cents/kWh, while a conventional natural gas fueled gas turbine combined cycle plant would be a much lower at 6.6 cents/kWh. Furthermore, EIA estimates that 70% of new US power plants will be fueled by natural gas. Gas turbines are the prime movers for the modern combined cycle power plant. On the natural gas side of the recently upended electrical energy markets, new shale gas production and the continued development of worldwide liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities provide the other element of synergism. The US natural gas prices are now low enough to compete directly with coal. The study concludes that the natural gas fueled gas turbine will continue to be a growing part of the world’s electric power generation.


Author(s):  
Yoshiaki Nishimura ◽  
Sadahiro Ohno ◽  
Shinya Ishikawa ◽  
Junichiro Masada ◽  
Kazumasa Takata

As global warming becomes increasingly serious, Japan has committed to reduce the CO2 emission by 25% from 1990 levels in Japan with preconditions by the end of 2020. To reach such the difficult target, resources and energy utilizations should be more efficient than before. Tohoku Electric Power Company, Inc. (Tohoku-EPCO) has been adopting the cutting-edge gas turbines for combined cycle power plants to contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and pollutant emission. Now Tohoku-EPCO and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) have started a study of next generation gas turbines to further improve the gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power plants efficiency. Tohoku-EPCO and MHI have invented a “closed circuit air cooling system” and a trial design of the closed circuit air cooled combustor is now being conducted as a collaborative project. Besides, the material technology development is being conducted for the further increase in the turbine Row 1 vane inlet temperature (TIT) in future.


Author(s):  
Michael Tsurikov ◽  
Wolfgang Meier ◽  
Klaus-Peter Geigle

In order to investigate the combustion behavior of gas turbine flames fired with low-caloric syngases, a model combustor with good optical access for confined, non-premixed swirl flames was developed. The measuring techniques applied were particle image velocimetry, OH* chemiluminescence detection and laser-induced fluorescence of OH. Two different fuel compositions of H2, CO, N2 and CH4, with similar laminar burning velocities, were chosen. Their combustion behavior was studied at two different pressures, two thermal loads and two combustion air temperatures. The overall lean flames (equivalence ratio 0.5) burned very stably and their shapes and combustion behavior were hardly influenced by the fuel composition or by the different operating conditions. The experimental results constitute a data-base that will be used for the validation of numerical combustion models and form a part of a co-operative EC project aiming at the development of highly efficient gas turbines for IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) power plants.


Author(s):  
Steven J. Bossart

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is actively sponsoring research to develop coal-based power generation systems that use coal more efficiently and economically and with lower emissions than conventional pulverized-coal power plants. Some of the more promising of the advanced coal-based power generation systems are shown in Figure 1: pressurized fluidized-bed combustion combined-cycle (PFBC), integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC), and direct coal-fueled turbine (DCFT). These systems rely on gas turbines to produce all or a portion of the electrical power generation. An essential feature of each of these systems is the control of particles at high-temperature and high-pressure (HTHP) conditions. Particle control is needed in all advanced power generation systems to meet environmental regulations and to protect the gas turbine and other major system components. Particles can play a significant role in damaging the gas turbine by erosion, deposition, and corrosion. Erosion is caused by the high-speed impaction of particles on the turbine blades. Particle deposition on the turbine blades can impede gas flow and block cooling air. Particle deposition also contributes to corrosive attack when alkali metal compounds adsorbed on the particles react with the gas turbine blades. Incorporation of HTHP particle control technologies into the advanced power generation systems can reduce gas turbine maintenance requirements, increase plant efficiency, reduce plant capital cost, lower the cost of electricity, reduce wastewater treatment requirements, and eliminate the need for post-turbine particle control to meet New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for particle emissions.


1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Wilkes ◽  
R. A. Wenglarz ◽  
P. J. Hart ◽  
H. C. Mongia

This paper describes the application of Allison’s rich-quench-lean (RQL) coal combustor technology to large utility gas turbines in the 100 MWe+ class. The RQL coal combustor technology was first applied to coal derived fuels in the 1970s and has been under development since 1986 as part of a Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored heat engine program aimed at proof of concept testing of coal-fired gas turbine technology. The 5 MWe proof of concept engine/coal combustion system was first tested on coal water slurry (CWS); it is now being prepared for testing on dry pulverized coal. A design concept to adapt the RQL coal combustor technology developed under the DOE program to large utility-sized gas turbines has been proposed for a Clean Coal V program. The engine and combustion system modifications required for application to coal-fueled combined cycle power plants using 100 MWe+ gas turbines are described. Estimates for emissions and cycle performance are given. Included are comparisons with a conventional pulverized coal plant that illustrates the advantages of incorporating a gas turbine on cycle efficiency and emission rate.


Author(s):  
Nikolett Sipöcz ◽  
Klas Jonshagen ◽  
Mohsen Assadi ◽  
Magnus Genrup

The European electric power industry has undergone considerable changes over the past two decades as a result of more stringent laws concerning environmental protection along with the deregulation and liberalization of the electric power market. However, the pressure to deliver solutions in regard to the issue of climate change has increased dramatically in the last few years and has given rise to the possibility that future natural gas-fired combined cycle (NGCC) plants will also be subject to CO2 capture requirements. At the same time, the interest in combined cycles with their high efficiency, low capital costs, and complexity has grown as a consequence of addressing new challenges posed by the need to operate according to market demand in order to be economically viable. Considering that these challenges will also be imposed on new natural gas-fired power plants in the foreseeable future, this study presents a new process concept for natural gas combined cycle power plants with CO2 capture. The simulation tool IPSEpro is used to model a 400 MW single-pressure NGCC with post-combustion CO2 capture using an amine-based absorption process with monoethanolamine. To improve the costs of capture, the gas turbine GE 109FB is utilizing exhaust gas recirculation, thereby, increasing the CO2 content in the gas turbine working fluid to almost double that of conventional operating gas turbines. In addition, the concept advantageously uses approximately 20% less steam for solvent regeneration by utilizing preheated water extracted from heat recovery steam generator. The further recovery of heat from exhaust gases for water preheating by use of an increased economizer flow results in an outlet stack temperature comparable to those achieved in combined cycle plants with multiple-pressure levels. As a result, overall power plant efficiency as high as that achieved for a triple-pressure reheated NGCC with corresponding CO2 removal facility is attained. The concept, thus, provides a more cost-efficient option to triple-pressure combined cycles since the number of heat exchangers, boilers, etc., is reduced considerably.


Author(s):  
Nikolett Sipo¨cz ◽  
Klas Jonshagen ◽  
Mohsen Assadi ◽  
Magnus Genrup

The European electric power industry has undergone considerable changes over the past two decades as a result of more stringent laws concerning environmental protection along with the deregulation and liberalization of the electric power market. However, the pressure to deliver solutions in regard to the issue of climate change has increased dramatically in the last few years and given the rise to the possibility that future natural gas-fired combined cycle (NGCC) plants will also be subject to CO2 capture requirements. At the same time, the interest in combined cycles with their high efficiency, low capital costs and complexity has grown as a consequence of addressing new challenges posed by the need to operate according to market demand in order to be economically viable. Considering that these challenges will also be imposed on new natural gas-fired power plants in the foreseeable future, this study presents a new process concept for natural gas combined cycle power plants with CO2 capture. The simulation tool IPSEpro is used to model a 400 MW single-pressure NGCC with post-combustion CO2 capture, using an amine-based absorption process with Monoethanolamine. To improve the costs of capture the gas turbine, GE 109FB, is utilizing exhaust gas recirculation, thereby increasing the CO2 content in the gas turbine working fluid to almost double that of conventional operating gas turbines. In addition, the concept advantageously uses approximately 20% less steam for solvent regeneration by utilizing preheated water extracted from HRSG. The further recovery of heat from exhaust gases for water preheating by use of an increased economizer flow results in an outlet stack temperature comparable to those achieved in combined cycle plants with multiple pressure levels. As a result, overall power plant efficiency as high as that achieved for a triple-pressure reheated NGCC with corresponding CO2 removal facility is attained. The concept thus provides a more cost-efficient option to triple-pressure combined cycles since the number of heat exchangers, boilers, etc. is reduced considerably.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (12) ◽  
pp. 57-57
Author(s):  
Lee S. Langston

This article presents an overview of gas turbine combined cycle (CCGT) power plants. Modern CCGT power plants are producing electric power as high as half a gigawatt with thermal efficiencies approaching the 60% mark. In a CCGT power plant, the gas turbine is the key player, driving an electrical generator. Heat from the hot gas turbine exhaust is recovered in a heat recovery steam generator, to generate steam, which drives a steam turbine to generate more electrical power. Thus, it is a combined power plant burning one unit of fuel to supply two sources of electrical power. Most of these CCGT plants burn natural gas, which has the lowest carbon content of any other hydrocarbon fuel. Their near 60% thermal efficiencies lower fuel costs by almost half compared to other gas-fired power plants. Their installed capital cost is the lowest in the electric power industry. Moreover, environmental permits, necessary for new plant construction, are much easier to obtain for CCGT power plants.


1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Daudet ◽  
C. A. Kinney

This paper presents a discussion of the significant results of a study program conducted for the Department of Energy to evaluate the potential for closed cycle gas turbines and the associated combustion heater systems for use in coal fired public utility power plants. Two specific problem areas were addressed: (a) the identification and analysis of system concepts which offer high overall plant efficiency consistent with low cost of electricity (COE) from coal-pile-to-bus-bar, and (b) the identification and conceptual design of combustor/heat exchanger concepts compatible for use as the cycle gas primary heater for those plant systems. The study guidelines were based directly upon the ground rules established for the ECAS studies to facilitate comparison of study results. Included is a discussion of a unique computer model approach to accomplish the system analysis and parametric studies performed to evaluate entire closed cycle gas turbine utility power plants with and without Rankine bottoming cycles. Both atmospheric fluidized bed and radiant/convective combustor /heat exchanger systems were addressed. Each incorporated metallic or ceramic heat exchanger technology. The work culminated in conceptual designs of complete coal fired, closed cycle gas turbine power plants. Critical component technology assessment and cost and performance estimates for the plants are also discussed.


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