Advanced Turbine Systems Program
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Objective (graphic, 300K): The Advanced Gas Turbine Systems Program is an 8-year, $700 million
Industry/Government program designed to develop and test the next generation of
engines used in industrial and utility power generation and cogeneration. The
program has over 100 participating members from Universities, Industry, End
Users, and State and Local Agencies.
Goals: Today, more than 60% of the new and "repowered"
capacity additions are being met by gas turbine installations. Combined cycle
gas turbine power plants can have an thermal-to-electric efficiency exceeding
60%, while the state-of-the-art steam-powered central power plant is less than
40% efficient. Furthermore, economical gas turbine plant can range in size from
300 MW (and multiples thereof) to as small as 1 MW. Moreover, gas turbine plant
emits an order of magnitude less greenhouse gases.
The goals of the program are to increase the efficiency of industrial gas
turbines (less than 20 MW capacity) by 15 percentage points and the efficiency
of utility turbines to 60% efficiency. With this higher efficiency and other
design changes, the goal of the program is reduce the cost of electricity by ten
percent. The third major goal is to reduce NOx emissions to less than 8 ppm.
The availability of these higher efficient plant should double the rate of
new cogeneration capacity. This translates to an annual energy savings of 0.25
Quad in 2005 and a reduction of 58 million tons per year of greenhouse gases.
Over 2.9 quads can be realized by 2020.
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Approach: This program is a public/private
cost-shared activity, with industry providing 42% cost share in the overall 
development. The DOE contribution is jointly funded and managed by OIT and the
Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC). OIT has the lead on the development of the
industrial turbines, the advanced materials and biomass applications. METC has
the lead for the utility turbines, coal gasification applications and the
Industry/University Consortium. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE) has the lead on Industrial Turbine, Ceramic Retrofit, Materials/Manufacturing, and Biomass Applications.
The program has four phases: scoping study, feasibility studies, core engine
development and demonstration. The goals of the program were established
through extensive interaction with the major turbine manufacturers in the world
and through several public forums. The program began in 1992 with planning
activities and feasibility studies by six major gas turbine manufacturers:
Westinghouse Electric, General Electric, Allison Turbine Division of General
Motors, Solar Turbines Division of Caterpillar, United Technologies' Turbo Power
and Marine and Asea Brown Boveri. Four contracts have been awarded to develop
conceptual designs: GE and Westinghouse for utility systems (100 MW and 200
MW); Solar (5-15 MW) and Allison (5-12 MW) for industrial systems. Initial
demonstrations are scheduled for 1996, with system commercialization to follow
in 2000.
The Technology Base Development (graphic, 245K) portion of the program contains sub-elements which address generic technology issues for the advanced turbine system. One sub-element is the materials/manufacturing technology program to be directed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with work performed at national laboratory and private industry sites. This sub-element includes materials issues, such as long-term mechanical property testing and materials exposure testing, which are important for all turbine manufacturers but not specific to any one individual manufacturer's project. Projects in this sub-element will be aimed toward hastening the incorporation of new materials and components into gas turbines.
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Accomplishments
- Four major gas turbine companies have completed preliminary system design
studies and perfromed some critical sub-scale testing.
- Allison has demonstrated a full engine test operating at 2600F, a world's
temperature record for industrial engines (1994).
- The participating companies have developed improved low-NOx combustors.
- Solar Turbines and Allison Turbines are planning to install low-NOx
combustors as a test in commercial retrofit engines in FY 96.
- Solar Turbines has initiatied full scale engine test program for ceramic
combustors, nozzles and blades. Hundreds of newly designed ceramic components
have been designed and procured.
- Several companies have demonstrated sub-scale feasibility of steam cooling.
- Two awards have been made on advanced castings for single crystal alloys;
five turbine manufacturers are supporting the effort.
- Twenty-three awards have been made to universities by a joint DOE-Industry
steering committee. A number of results have been published in improved
materails, heat transfer, Low emission combustion, and other areas.
|| ATS Home || Objective ( graphic, 300K; text) || Goals ||
Approach || Accomplishments
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http://www.ms.ornl.gov/ats/bkgrd.htm; Last revised: 8-28-96