Development of the gas turbine

Here lies the crux of the major problem in the early development of the gas turbine. The compressor must be highly efficient-it must use the minimum power to compress the gas the turbine must also be highly efficient-it must deliver the maximum power if it is to drive the compressor and have power over. With low compressor and turbine efficiency, the plant can only just be self-sustaining-the turbine can drive the compressor but do no more than that. 

Additional measures to control NO, emissions are based on the further development of the gas turbine combustion system to minimise the conversion of ammonia to NO, Two such approaches are being developed cunently by ALSTOM Power, based on staged air addition or catalytic combustion. 

However, rapid development of the gas turbine engine and the quest for greater power resulted in higher operating temperatures of the lubricated components and... 

Considerable international attention has been focused on the development of the gas turbine modular HTGR plant. Included are the GT-MHR, GTHTR300 and ACACIA plants and a brief overview of their design intent. Details associated with the design of these plants can be found in this TECDOC and also in reference [XIV-11]. 

The first appHcation of the gas turbine principle to a ground system was in 1906 when waste heat from furnace gases was used to operate a turboblower which compressed air for a blast furnace. Developments in metallurgy and compressor design after World War I led, in 1937, to the first... 

The most common use of the gas turbine power system in the oil and gas industry is in combination with an electrical system (i.e., electric generators and electric motors). In 1965 such a system was used to power a rotary rig. This was a 3,000-hp rig developed by Continental-Ensco. The rig used three 1,100-hp Solar Saturn single-shaft gas turbines. These gas turbines operated at 22,300 rpm and were connected through double reduction gear transmissions to DC generators. 

The role of the gas turbine is more familiar to many of us in the aircraft field. However, since Sir Frank Whittle invented the jet engine in the early pioneering years before the Second World War there has been rapid development in both output and efficiency of these machines, and today the gas turbine is a popular choice for electricity generation. 

Gas turbines can be arranged either in single-shaft or split-shaft types. The single-shaft arrangement requires the turbine to provide power to drive both the compressor and the load. This means that the compressor is influenced by the load. The compressor efficiency is a function of the speed. When the load is increased, the compressor speed is slowed down, which is not desirable. It is very desirable to make the gas turbine a reliable shaft-driven propulsion system therefore, the compressor speed must be held constant. Hence, split-shaft gas turbines are developed. In this arrangement, there are two turbines each with its own independent shaft. The sole function of the first turbine is to drive the compressor at a steady speed without being influenced by the load. The net power of the gas turbine is produced by the second turbine as shown by Fig. 4.9. 

The major challenge for the utilization of biomass as renewable energy source in combined gasification/gas turbine plants is the efficient removal of tar and particulates from the feed gas of the gas turbine [11]. This is a another promising application of the concept of catalytic filtration, but the technical development is still in the laboratory state. 

The main reason for the substantial irreversibility in the combustion process is the peak temperature limitation imposed by the materials of construction in the first stage of the gas-turbine, coupled with the high thermodynamic "quality" of the fuel combustion energy. One way to reduce this irreversibility is to develop turbines that can withstand higher inlet temperatures—a... 

The third outstanding issue in the development of catalytic gas turbine combustors is the development of a complete system, i.e., monolith and washcoat design, fuel inlets, and... 

A batch reactor with a cooling jacket has been chosen for the comparative studies performed in this paper. The catalyst pellets are located in a special basket. Ideal mixing of the liquid phase and a good development of the gas-liquid interface can be assumed due to the installation of a turbine stirrer and baffles. The following mass balance equations have been denved for the hydrogenation of 2,4-DNT over a palladium on alumina catalyst and performed in the batch reactor with the methanol as an evaporating solvent ... 

The pressurized bed was developed in the late 1980s to further improve the efficiency levels in coal-fired plants. In this concept, the conventional combustion chamber of the gas turbine is replaced by a PFBC. The products of combustion pass through a hot gas cleaning system before entering the turbine. The heat of the exhaust gas from the gas turbine is utilized in the downstream steam turbine. This technology is called PFBC combined cycle (Figure 22.8). 

The Gas Turbine - Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) is a power unit for the production of electricity or the co-generation of electricity and process heat. The GT-MHR power unit couples the passively safe Modular Helium Reactor (MHR) with a highly efficient energy conversion system. The energy conversion system is based on an intercooled and recuperated closed Brayton (gas turbine) cycle that has a projected efficiency of approximately 48%. The GT-MHR produces electricity directly with the reactor primary helium coolant driving a gas turbine generator derived from technologies developed in the gas turbine and aerospace industries. 

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