MHI achieves 1,600°C turbine inlet temperature in test operation of efficient J-Series gas turbine
27 May 2011
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has achieved a turbine inlet temperature of 1,600 °C—which it calls the world’s highest—with the company’s advanced J-Series gas turbine. The record were achieved during test operation of the turbine, which began in February this year, at the combined-cycle power plant for verification testing at MHI’s Takasago Machinery Works in Hyogo Prefecture.
The gas turbine that marked the achievement is the 60 hertz (Hz) M501J, which MHI developed in the spring of 2009. The new turbine is able to withstand a temperature 100 degrees higher than the 1,500°C-class G-Series gas turbines. In general, the higher a gas turbine’s inlet temperature, the greater is the turbine’s thermal efficiency, MHI says. The 1,600°C-class J-Series gas turbine has achieved a rated power output of about 320 megawatts (MW) (ISO basis) and 460 MW in gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) power generation applications, in which heat recovery steam generators and steam turbines are also used. MHI has also confirmed gross thermal efficiency exceeding 60%.
Siemens (earlier post) and GE (earlier post) have also recently highlighted new systems with efficiencies surpassing 60%.
With GTCC type power generation, gas and steam turbines are used in combination to generate electricity in two stages, utilizing high-temperature exhaust gas from the gas turbine. This configuration enables GTCC power plants to achieve higher thermal efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, consuming less fuel relative to electricity output. With the J-Series gas turbine, GTCC power generation will be able to achieve CO2 emissions approximately 50% lower than with conventional coal-fired power generation (comparison with MHI’s power plants). In the J-Series, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, which usually increase as combustion temperature rises, are suppressed to a level equivalent to that of current models, in order to address global environmental issues.
MHI has completed the final confirmation in the testing of the new gas turbine. Six units of the J-Series turbine are slated for delivery to the Himeji No.2 Power Station of Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. Following the 60 Hz M501J, the Takasago Machinery Works is currently developing the 50 Hz M701J gas turbine, targeting first shipments in 2014.
No link to the press release? (Ah, found it myself.)
Coal emits about twice the carbon per BTU than NG, so achieving a 50% cut is no real achievement.
IGCC duty is where the rubber meets the road. If we're going to use coal, it has to be cleaned up. Scrubbing the sulfur, capturing the toxic metals, putting much (if not all) of the CO2 underground and boosting the efficiency are all positives.
Sadly, MHI does not give efficiency figures for the bare GT, only the figure for CC duty. If it was fed from a gasifier matching the Wabash River plant's 78% cold-gas efficiency, it would get about 46% (figuring that the steam from the gasifier's syngas cooler can run the oxygen plant and the other parasitic loads).
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 30 May 2011 at 09:56 AM