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.”
Morgan Freeman will play him in the movie
Its only government regulation and desire for control that pushes centralization.
Power is a perfect example - the trend should be towards individuals being able to produce their own power, efficiently, cheaply and conveniently, without huge investment costs.
Like in "Dolphin's Tale"
This is where I think power generation is headed in the next 50 years. I think in many areas of the country you will no longer see large or mega-sized power generation plants and large high voltage wires. Instead, I think you will see smaller community, neighborhood, or even home-sized power plants.
That’s why the idea of building all these super high capacity power lines all through developed areas makes little sense given where the technology is clearly headed.
The turbine’s size, though remarkable, is not the issue. The fuel is. With the length of the fins reduced, the turbine can spool to much higher RPMs safer with less chance of destructive harmonic resonance. Were it to be made of titanium or ceramic, then it can achieve considerable internal temperatures and withstand the required pressures. BUT without the proper fuel source, one that is always available, the damned thing won’t run.
How does it get repressurized?
Could a small one of these be used to air condition a house?
Fuel source or source of movement such as a dam or tidal
Try THIS instead. They advertise heavily in my area, FL Panhandle:
Watch the video.......................
Making electricity cheaply requires the economy of scale. A small quiet efficient generator would be so desirable nobody could sit on a secret design for very long. It is just a hard problem to solve.
“After the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it’s cooled”
Ruh-ro...that daggone gorebal warming again!
Where can I buy one?
sorry if i don’t get all wee-wee’d up over this. i’ve seen too many ‘miracle’ technology announcements that haven’t panned out. i’ll believe it when i see it
“After the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it’s cooled and then repressurized before returning for another pass. “
I fail to see how this as a positive return on energy because more energy will always be required to pressurize it than will be extracted from it.
I believe they would use hydro power...................
This isn’t some ‘miracle’ technology, just an improvement on the state-of-the-art.....................
But again, the amount of energy put into compressing the CO2 will ALWAYS exceed the energy gotten out of it.
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