New, efficient industrial gas turbines coming

摘要

Technology advances in industry often proceed at a slow, conservative pace. This applies more so to large, complex systems like the new-generation stationary gas turbines coming online. These weigh up to 440 metric tons-nearly a million pounds of hardware! But at the heart of the latest combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants lies innovation, not just gigantic size.rnFor example, the newest gas turbinesrnapply single-crystal materials, super alloys, special thermal coatings, and-in one design-closed-loop steam cooling to reach 60% thermal efficiency and beyond. Moreover, the turbine systems are said to produce fewer emissions thanrnconventional CCGT plants. Even substantially higher efficiency is possible in a cogeneration plant, where excess generated heat is put to use for process or domestic heating, in addition electric power generation.