Posted on 04/14/2016 10:59:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
Doug Hofer, a GE engineer in charge of the project, shows off a model of the turbine. =======================================================================================================
GE Global Research is testing a desk-size turbine that could power a small town of about 10,000 homes. The unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high pressure and up to 700 °C exists as neither a liquid nor a gas. After the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it's cooled and then repressurized before returning for another pass.
The unit’s compact size and ability to turn on and off rapidly could make it useful in grid storage. It’s about one-tenth the size of a steam turbine of comparable output, and has the potential to be 50 percent efficient at turning heat into electricity. Steam-based systems are typically in the mid-40 percent range; the improvement is achieved because of the better heat-transfer properties and reduced need for compression in a system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide compared to one that uses steam. The GE prototype is 10 megawatts, but the company hopes to scale it to 33 megawatts.
In addition to being more efficient, the technology could be more nimble—in a grid-storage scenario, heat from solar energy, nuclear power, or combustion could first be stored as molten salt and the heat later used to drive the process.
While such a heat reservoir could also be used to boil water to power a steam turbine, a steam system could take 30 minutes to get cranked up, while a carbon dioxide turbine might take only a minute or two—making it well-suited for on-the-spot power generation needed during peak demand periods.
GE's system might also be better than huge arrays of batteries. Adding more hours of operation just means having a larger or hotter reservoir of the molten salt, rather than adding additional arrays of giant batteries. “The key thing will come down to economics,” says Doug Hofer, the GE engineer in charge of the project. While there’s work ahead, he says, “at this point we think our economic story is favorable compared to batteries.”
And you know there were white actors willing to play the role that had a closer resemblance.
[ The Thorium Problem
https://youtu.be/tyqYP6f66Mw ]
It is sad that Thorium from rare earth mining is treated as a waste instead of being used as an energy source in order to line the pockets of GE and other Nuclear Cronies who are in bed with government who want to keep the system around to line their own pockets.
It’s a “Closed Brayton Cycle” or a “Closed-cycle gas turbine” which has been known about for a long time. Initial patents granted in 1935! In 1899, Charles Gordon Curtis patented the first [open cycle] gas turbine engine in the USA (”Apparatus for generating mechanical power”, Patent No. US635,919).
The challenges are largely metallurgical — how to get high enough gas temperatures for high efficiency while having the heat exchanger have a decent lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-cycle_gas_turbine
A gas turbine draws in air, compresses the air, applies heat to the compressed air by combustion of the fuel injected, maintains the pressure as a constant as it enters the exhaust(extraction) turbine, and extracts energy from the exhaust gases as they expand and drop pressure. The exhaust turbine and compressor turbine components are connected by a drive shaft; which, feeds power to the air compressor and anything else connected to this shaft, from the exhaust turbine.
The heat energy added to the compressed gas is transformed to mechanical energy within the turbine. If the energy of compression exceeded the energy of the heat addition from fuel, gas turbines wouldn’t work and jet powered aircraft wouldn’t fly.
Any sufficient heat source will work-—combustion of fuel, concentrated thermal solar, nuclear reaction, geothermal, waste heat from a processing furnace.
All of this is about the advantage of using a different working fluid, Co2 instead of water/steam, and the advantage of adopting the technology; now, that the materials issues hindering adoption for decades are finally solved.
This is a real deal that will extract more energy from the same amount of fuel burned, a minimum of 10% more, and will occupy 1/10th the floor space.
The entire nuclear sector is behind the present technology and the regulatory state that preserves their market dominance. That will not change until people get over their irrational fear of nuclear power. In the meantime China is putting a billion per year into MSR development and will own the IP
On Bloom;
From my first encounter, a TV show which was on Bloom Energy as the next and greatest breakthrough in “green energy” production. That was over eight years ago.
I have checked their website from time to time since then and while they aren’t yet a household name, there is something different about them.
Unlike most “Vaporware” companies that I’ve seen, Bloom, seems to be consistently signing up Major corporations. Companies that don’t enter into these agreements without doing their homework. They also seem to be consistently hiring. Not just engineers, but across the board of what you would expect of a legit company/technology.
In addition, not being able to find their financials and they aren’t looking for investors makes them wholly different. They may have started with a Government grant, but with over 15 years of development and 10 years since their first installation I think this company may be the real deal.
Battery Commander, If you are making “Parts” for them I would suggest that you take them seriously. I suggest you and your team figure out how to make those parts better and at a lower cost. If you don’t, someone else will.
Some of the financial press is saying that it won’t be for another ten years before they make a profit. Another issue is the temperatures that this system operates at 2800 degrees F will have an effect on the environment, also it produces carbon dioxide.
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