Capstone Turbine Successfully Demonstrates EPA and CARB 2010 Diesel Engine Emissions
31 March 2009
Capstone Turbine Corporation has demonstrated with its 30 kW microturbine emission levels compliant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2010 requirements for Heavy Duty Diesel Engine (HDDE). Tests were conducted at Capstone’s development test facilities in Van Nuys, California.
Internal combustion diesel engine manufacturers have been challenged for the last several years to develop technology improvements that reduce emissions to levels specified by the EPA and CARB 2010 standards—e.g., a more than 80% NOx reduction from the current EPA and CARB 2007 standards.
Capstone microturbines incorporate lean premix combustion technology which offers clean burning exhaust emissions operating on gaseous and liquid fuels. To achieve the emissions improvements, Capstone’s team of engineers developed new fuel injection methods that resulted in significantly lower emissions. Testing demonstrated compliant NOx and CO emissions from part load to full load operation.
The resulting system requires no fuel pretreatment or exhaust aftertreatment to meet the more stringent standards.
Taking into consideration that 1 horsepower equals 746 watts. Then you have the potential for a 40 horsepower engine using capstones 30 kW micro-turbine.
Fortunately Capstone also has 60kW, 65kW and 200kW turbines as well. Each puts more distinctive horsepower ratings into workable arrangements;
60 kW = 80 Hp, 65 kW = 87 Hp, and 200 kW = 268 Hp.
http://www.capstoneturbine.com/prodsol/products/index.asp
Posted by: Clint LeRoy | 31 March 2009 at 08:15 AM
Run them on natural gas and they will be clean. Do a combined cycle with a steam turbine and they will be more efficient too. Do an SOFC/gas turbine/steam turbine and they will be VERY efficient.
Posted by: SJC | 31 March 2009 at 10:02 AM
The efficiency of the Capstone turbines peaks out at around 26%; this is far below diesel levels. Adding a bottoming cycle won't help; you're not going to get very good efficiency out of such a small steam engine, either.
The Capstone turbine is good for CHP and using stranded fuel supplies, like landfill gas. It may have applications where extreme light weight is advantageous or required. If we're talking about running buses, I'd prefer to see the gas used in a stationary CCGT plant at 60% efficiency and used to charge batteries.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 31 March 2009 at 03:49 PM