Short Summary
A New Gas Turbine
engine Concept for Electricity
Generation with
Increased Efficiency and Power
William A.
Sirignano
99-09
EISG Project Title: A New Gas Turbine
Engine Concept for Electricity Generation with Increased Efficiency and Power
EISG Grant Number: 99-09
PIER Area: Environmentally Preferred Advanced Generation
Principal Investigator: W. A. Sirignano
Contact Information: (949) 824-3700 sirignan@uci.edu
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Grant Amount: $75,000
Grant Term: 18 Months
Project Description:
The purpose of this project is to research the feasibility of an innovative gas turbine design that extends combustion into the turbine sections which has the potential to increase thermal efficiency and specific power output. This project will conduct detailed cycle analysis to include turbine inlet temperature, pressure ratio and power distribution in the turbine stages and aerothermodynamic and combustion analysis on the flow through the turbine blades.
Proposed Outcomes:
· Optimized gas turbine design configuration.
· Identification of technological obstacles that need to be overcome to advance the concept to the next level.
Anticipated Benefits:
· Increase thermal efficiency of gas turbines to 65%, a 15-20% increase over conventional engines used for electrical generation. This represents a significant increase in the percentage of the heat energy in the natural gas fuel that is converted to electrical energy.
· Increase the specific power by 100% over conventional engines, which allows engines to be built smaller resulting in lower capital costs.